Feedback: What to do about the water...

What to do about the water.

For 15 years, the city of McCook has been dealing with the question of nitrates, quantity, and now arsenic, uranium and other impurities.

Last week, the Gazette put the question to its readers. Should we:

- Look for water to the north?

- Look for water to the south?

- Treat the present water supply?

- Put the issue to a vote of the people?

Or is there some other solution? Elsewhere on this page is Feedback in the form of Open Forum and Speak Out responses.

The online poll at mccookgazette.com had the following results:

Look for water to the north -- 25 votes for 29 percent.

Look for water to the south -- five votes for 6 percent.

Treat the present water supply -- 17 votes for 20 percent.

Put the issue to a vote of the people -- 38 votes for 45 percent.

Let citizens vote

Dear Editor,

As a citizen of McCook and because you ask for input from all interested Citizens, please find options and information which would allow the citizens to make the decision on the existing water well field with new wells, treatment, or a new well field.

An opportunity is presenting itself to the city of McCook that will never again happen in our life time. A combination of circumstances favorable in making McCook's long term water decision absolutely fair to all citizens of McCook is presenting itself now. Let the citizens vote on the options and information. This will get the monkey off the council's backs and get the water issue behind us.

The city of McCook in the last two years has spent over $100,000 looking for water north of McCook. The council has not spent one dollar in the last two years looking for water south or south east of McCook, known as the Corey Site.

Option 1

Here's some information on the Corey Site. This site was in the 1990 water study and known as Area C McCook Southeast. This information is taken from that study. The preliminary data obtained north of the river indicated very low nitrate levels at every site tested.

There for, the drilling program for this area was directed more toward determining definition and boundary of the "best aquifer" area. A shallow / deep comparison test was conducted at about the center of the area.

The results of this test show the shallow well had 0.53 parts per million nitrates and 0.03 parts per million of nitrates in the deep well.

All other nitrate tests taken north of the river showed a level of less than 2.0 parts per million of nitrates. Area C proved to be the largest low nitrate/best aquifer found in the Republican Valley as a result of this study.

In view of this total analysis it appears that the quantity of water available is excellent. The study also states that area C is recommended as the best area available for the development of a new well field for the City of McCook, with shorter and less expensive transmission lines required to tie in to the existing system.

As for the TCE plume, it has stopped moving and has been cleaned up.

Option 2

Continue drawing water from the current well field, drill an addition two or three new wells; put industrial users on separate well, drill wells for cemetery, parks and other areas. Treat water if needed. This option was the Water Advisory Committee recommendation.

Option 3

New well field north of town.

There should be an engineering study of Option 1 and 2 done by an uninterested engineer. The city of McCook should not be pressured by Jack Daniel, or with the states revolving funds.

Sell bonds to fund the new well field. Interest on bonds is very low at this time. It's been said the city cannot use the present water storage facility, because the site is contaminated.

If the engineers would try to solve this problem, instead of listening to Mr. Daniel, they could get approval for the site. Put a double jacket around the underground pipe from the tank to the pumps. Plug the underground pipe and draw water from a pipe above ground in the side of the tank.

There are many other ways to solve this problem. One of the engineers and the mayor did a very good job in changing the state's mind on our prison facility; the very same thing can happen with the Nebraska Department of Health (and Human Services). The City Council should not rush into making a decision of this magnitude, they should allow the people to vote for the best well field site. Let's proceed slowly, with wisdom and good information-not the political pressure that has been applied recently.

Jack Lytle

McCook

EDITOR'S NOTE -- Lytle is a former public works director for the city of McCook.

Squandered money

I have lived in McCook for more than 13 years. I cannot believe the way that the City Council has squandered the tax payers' money during this time. I don't feel we are one bit closer to solving the situation and feel that we need to treat our existing water field.

I also think we should make the railroad pay to move the existing holding facility. They have already admitted to creating the problem.

Treat water we have

I think we should treat the water at home. If you don't treat the water you have, you're wasting the resources of our country. We may have to treat the water we bring in, so it's best to treat what we have right here. Treat water we've got

I think they ought to treat the water we've got, why go looking for more, we've got the water now. We don't need to go looking north south east or west. Wherever we get the water, we're going to have to treat anyway. Look north for water

I would vote for going north. It's good water, good tasting water, there's plenty of water. If they treat the water in these bigger cities, it doesn't really taste like good drinking water. Already agreed to treat

What do we think?

We feel the city should treat the water where it is now, as was agreed upon earlier.

If we have a problem with the diesel spill created by the railroad, then obviously they should be responsible for the cost.  

The city manager said we needed to get on with it. What's the big hurry? We feel we need to look and study all the options before spending more money looking at wells north of town.

Look what happen when the past council "got in a hurry"! Treat water and sue

I think they should continue to search for a treatment plant and to hold the party responsible for the contamination and get remuneration from that. Eventually were going to have to treat the water, in some manner, shape or form, either completely or partially. Quit fooling around

I think they should try to treat the water, rather than to keep fooling around, trying to find a place to drill a well. Look south or treat

I think we should look to the south, or treat the water where it is. Stay the course

The best option for the city is to stay the course and continue with its plans for a northern well field.

The citizens of McCook should not be given the job of micro-managing the city. That is why we have the election process for governmental leaders.

If city residents are not happy with the way the city's water plans are proceeding, they have only themselves to blame, considering voter turnout at the election in November that seated four council members was at around 30 percent.

The fact is, the public is not well enough informed to make any decision regarding the water. When you consider that an average of 30 people or 0.375 percent of McCook's population show up for the city's bi-monthly council meetings, and an even smaller number showed up for its Water Advisory Committee meetings in 2002, turning the vote over to an uniformed public becomes a frightening prospect.

Whether we like the idea of spending money on engineers or not, they are the only experts we have that can answer the questions that arise -- anyone can make a guess, but it takes engineers with the tools to make an informed hypothesis about the water situation to help us make a decision. The process of finding new water begins with a search of existing reports and information and from there the investigation continues -- unfortunately for all of us, it's not the same process as looking at a lake and determining the water levels.

As for a treatment facility, its important to remember that the expected life span of a treatment plant is 20 years and in order to keep water rates as low as possible, the city is looking at a 30 year loan.

That means for 10 years we will be paying for an obsolete system in addition to beginning the process of spending even more on an updated treatment facility.

The decision will not be an easy one for anyone. But a decision has been made. After 15 years, its time to finally commit to a decision and begin moving forward.

No matter how you look at it, the city will be paying for this long into the future. Let's begin the process now, so that we can finally move on to other important issues. Eventually, we'll treat

I feel that we might just as well treat the water right now, as I think a few years down the road, it's going to come to that anyway, so why spend the money? Could have filtered

They could have had this problem solved two years ago, if they would have put in a filtration system.