Board members from the Brown County Water Improvement District were briefed Tuesday night by Senior Engineer William “Billy” Gamblin, P.E. of DB Stephens and Associates, Inc. regarding their test well project which wrapped up last month in search for alternative sources of water for Brown County.

Analysis on the flow rate and quality of the water is almost complete, but if the district plans to move forward to drill production water wells, they will need to know the costs.

“When we get all of the data back, somebody is going to have to do a cost analysis,” Gamblin said. “That’s going to be your biggest decision.”

Gamblin said that water from the Ellenberger aquifer which was found between 1700 and 2900 feet down had a flow rate of about 150 gallons per minute and between 14,000 and 22,000 total dissolved solids.  The questions now posed to the water district board is how many wells will it take to produce a significant amount of water for the county, and can the water be treated cost effectively at that poor of quality.

“One of the questions to be asked in the future is the cost of treatment of that water, and how many wells will it take to get a volume of water that would sustain or supplement the lake water to sustain Brown County,” Water District General Manager Dennis Spinks said.

Spinks said at the 150 gallons per minute, which is over 200,000 gallons per day, would take 5 wells just to achieve 1 million gallons per day; a fraction of the daily water use of the county.   Blending the well water with lake water for treatment might help the situation, but more research would have to be conducted to know the ratio of blended water and what the cost of treatment would be.

Gamblin said that at this point, a consulting firm will have to work on a cost analysis to answer these questions and determine these possible costs, and he said that it is hard for him to estimate those numbers, but it would be close.

“This project, science-wise, was a big success,” he said.  “But with that type of information, you as policy decision makers are going to have to determine if those costs to treat the water is worth it.”

The board will have to be presented with more information before they can make any kind of decision.

“I guess the bottom line is if we had enough wells to get us to volume, what we need to move forward is the cost to produce – if we need 1 million gallons per day or 10 million gallons per day, that is what we need to know,” said board member Dennis Graham.

“We need to take the data that we have and get a number that is reliable on what it is going to cost to treat that water and then get it to the treatment plant,” Spinks said.

Board members said that they should have more information at their October meeting for further discussion, but it was unclear at this point when the final decision will be made.