Council chooses water treatment

If the state of Nebraska approves a plan adopted by the McCook City Council at Monday night's regular meeting, city residents could be enjoying clean, filtered water within the next four years.

The council voted unanimously to approve a motion by Councilman Dick Trail to investigate, improve and expand the present municipal well field to secure an adequate supply of raw water, low in nitrates and implement measures to include non-potable water for municipal and industrial use, a water conservation program and well-head protection.

Trail's final criteria to "Design and build an appropriate water treatment plant when necessary," was amended to "Design and build an appropriate water treatment plant utilizing ion exchange, greensand filtration and reverse osmosis."

It is estimated the additional cost to users will be between $20.59 and $22.76 per month, based on 24.7 hundred cubic feet per user, per month.

Phil Lyons said he was concerned with building a new well field. "We're going to be investing a lot of money and if we get a $17 million well field with clean water, that's great. But if we get a $17 million well field and have to treat it, then we have a problem."

Lyons told the council he didn't believe an engineer could guarantee with 100 percent certainty that the water in a new well field would be pure enough for a municipal water supply without treatment.

Steve Batty suggested the city look closely at the criteria listed in Trail's motion.

"If we structure this so that these are the first things that happen, it might change the size of the plant, and the operation and maintenance costs," he said.

City manager John Bingham said the conservation plans and the search for non-potable water could be done concurrently with the development of the treatment facility.

The next step in the process will be to submit the city's plans to Jack Daniel of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services for approval.