Two cities, two solutions

Two communities located 40 miles apart -- Arapahoe and McCook -- have strikingly similar challenges about water quality. Both have existing well fields south of their towns, and both are under administrative order from the state to fix their problems or face sanctions.

The McCook City Council recently reversed positions and is now searching for additional safe water south of town. But, down the road, Arapahoe is moving in the other direction.

At the Feb. 3 meeting of the Arapahoe City Council, members voted to purchase 680 acres of land from the Dunlap family for a water well field. The agreed upon price was $492,000.

In a report by Gayle Schutz in the Arapahoe Public Mirror, readers also learned that Arapahoe City Attorney Ward Urbom is working on easements for the water well field, which is located about six miles north and one mile east of Arapahoe.

However, before Arapahoe Mayor Mark Graf signs the check for the land, the mayor says he will have to be sure that all funding sources are in place and that the plan has the approval of the Nebraska Department of Health & Human Services.

Part of the money for the water project has already been approved. The Public Mirror reported in its Feb. 11 issue that Arapahoe has been granted a $250,000 Community Development Block Grant for the water field project.

But much more remains to be done. Among the important upcoming events is a meeting with the Nebraska Rural Development Commission. Part of that discussion will be about whether or not Arapahoe joins with Holbrook, its neighbor to the west, in the well field project.

Once that question is answered, the next steps will be to get a transfer permit and to complete easements for the transmission line.

So why is Arapahoe seeking new sources for water? For much the same reasons as McCook. According to Mayor Graf, Arapahoe is under order to fix a problem with excess levels of copper in the water supply. And, beyond that, Arapahoe faces many of the same potential problems as McCook, including the danger of exceeding the new, lower standards for arsenic, uranium and nitrates.

Because of the similarities they face about the quality of their water supplies, Arapahoe and McCook can learn from each other.

Up and down the Republican River Valley, similar elements and conditions are affecting our water supplies. Fifty years from now, it will be interesting to see how future generations judge efforts, early in the 21st Century, to resolve the greatest ongoing challenge in this area's history: a safe, sufficient water supply.