By Adam Studzinski
BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington’s city council has voted to approve a $106,700 contract with Baxter & Woodman, Inc. to begin studying the possibility of the city beginning to pump water from the St. Peter Aquifer.
Bloomington Water Department Director Bob Yehl said looking at another water access point is a matter of improving water quality, not quantity. He added accessing the Mahomet Aquifer, which Normal uses, is not as feasible.
“The Danvers area is the closest location that gets to us for that,” said Yehl. “So we’d have to go out several miles with wells spaced and pipelines to bring it back in, and then most likely to a new treatment plant – which is 10s and 20s of millions of dollars.”
Yehl explained this is the first of several steps the city will take in the process.
“This is design services, will lead into drilling some test wells. Then we’ll come back with phases later to do the actual bringing the water to the plant and how we treat the water,” he said.
Bloomington would be the furthest down state city to access the St. Peter Aquifer. Yehl said Bloomington could place wells on city property at Evergreen Lake and Lake Bloomington.
Adam Studzinski can be reached at adam.studzinski@cumulus.com.
