By Meladi Brewer

DailyAdvcoate.com

VERSAILLES – The Versailles Village Council discussed the well 13’s pumping tests and the results.

The two-hour step test and the 72-hour pumping test for well 13 was conducted the week of Aug. 29. Eagon and Associates first conducted the two-hour step test on Monday. Village Administrator Mike Busse provided a report saying upon reviewing the results of the step test, Eagon recommended that the 72-hour flow test be performed at a rate of 600 gallons per minute (GPM).

Busse presented the graphs to the council with the results from monitoring the surrounding businesses and residential areas during the pump tests. The first graph presented was the data received from Cottonwood Lakes from both the residence and business.

“It looks like the most draw down we had was about 3.61 feet,” Busse said. “It was as from the beginning of the pump test to 72-hours later when we turned it off.”

Cottonwood Lakes was said to be roughly a quarter of a mile from the well pump, and the recovery time monitored from 10 a.m. until 3:58 p.m. recovered about a quarter of a foot.

“When we checked it again on Sept. 6, the following Tuesday, it was only down about three quarters of a foot from what we started with,” Busse said.

Busse advised council they will be monitoring and checking recoveries again on Friday, Sept. 16 as a follow up. He also showed more personal data regarding the Cottonwood Lakes Middle Pond saying the testing did not show an individual effect.

“The graphs show you that the angles are at a steady rate of decline based on the weather,” Busse said. “When we did out pumping from the week of the 29th, you can see, by the data, that there really isn’t any indication that our testing did anything to change the level of that lagoon other than rain made it go up.”

Busse said they will pull more data at a later date to confirm, and they will continue to monitor the situation at Cottonwood and the surrounding areas; however, he said there isn’t any current evidence that indicates there is any real change in the level based on the pumping they did.

Within the graphs, there were data dips presented that could be traced back to the personal pumps the property had.

“When your pump itself kicks on, it draws down in your case and affects the results of the test, so they (all those being monitored) tried to make sure they knew if their pump was running or not so we could document this,” Busse said.

The further away the village monitored from the well, the more the data began to flatten off, and the Bruns residence on Day Road was a smoother curve.

“See how the curve flattens out?” Busse asked the council. “I’m told that if we would have ran the test longer, we would have seen that curve flatten out completely.”

Busse said the draw down in the well was 8.31 feet, and the recovery had 1.69 feet at 1:30 p.m. and 4.46 feet at 5:22 p.m..

“You can see it jumped right back up, and this was on Tuesday. When we checked again on Tuesday, it was back up to only a half of a foot,” Busse said.

He said the data can be affected by a residence’s personal pump and weather. Due to this summer being fairly dry, the test was able to show how the pumps would affect the surrounding area in the worst case scenario. The village monitored various residents in a mile radius during the test. The resident a little over a mile away from the test has less of an effect with only slight changes to their water levels.

“You can see a little over a mile away there is a draw down but virtually no draw down. His maximum draw down was 1.29 feet. Now one thing you are going to see with this is because they are further away, you will not see that jump back on recovery,” Busse said.

The data showed the further away the residence was, the less draw down but slower the recovery. Mayor Subler spoke up about some things he’d like to point out during the discussion.

“The wells are rated based upon our test results, as it is a percentage thereof,” Mayor Subler said.

He said the original test was done around 500 GPM, and it was recommended by Eagon to increase the GPM to 600 thus causing the change. Busse said the purpose of this was to stress the aquifer because the point was to know the recharge rate of the pump. It allows them to see the adverse effects of running the pump that a lower normal rate wouldn’t.

“The reason why we were required to run a 72-hour test instead of a 24-hour test like we did on the other one was because there were concerns in the neighborhood that we might have an adverse effect on the neighboring wells,” Busse said.

The EPA required the increase in the test in order to gain more data in order to make the best decision moving forward. Not only are they testing how it pulls the water out of the wells, but what is the recovery time after pulling the increased amount and time.

Mayor Subler stressed how just because they pumped the test at 600 GPM, it does not mean how the well will be run 24/7 moving forward.

“We have no intention of running 600 GPM on every well continuously,” Mayor Subler. “I don’t even think we could store that much water.”

The plan and intent is these wells are a supplement to the current wells, not to pump them fully. Regardless, Busse says they will continue to monitor and collect data to ensure the Village remains a good neighbor and does its due diligence to live in accordance with everyone surrounding as the water is not owned but shared.

“My concern is the rest of the village,” Todd Dammeyer said. “I agree we need to do this and agree we need to be a good neighbor, but how do you define ‘good neighbor’ today, ten years from now, or what if we have an excessive drought?”

“I’m on the line that if we think that there is a possibility that we are causing an issue for somebody, then we need to do what we need to do to figure it out,” Busse said.

The Village Council is currently done with their 72-hour pump test, but they are waiting on the water quality testing to come back in about four to six weeks.

The next Versailles Council meeting will take place Wednesday Sept. 28, 2021, at 7 p.m., in EMS Building, 320 Baker Road, Versailles with a Public Hearing at 6:50 p.m. regarding a CRA application for Kings Command.

To contact Daily Advocate Reporter Meladi Brewer, email [email protected].