Council moves ahead with fifth municipal well project
High PFAS shut down two of the city’s wells this past year.
By Steve Van Kooten
The Prairie du Chien Common Council unanimously approved a professional services agreement (PSA) for a fifth well for the city at their March 4 meeting.
“This is the next step from what we started last fall. This is an ongoing thing with the city, with Wells 1 and 2 testing high for PFAS,” Matt Muchow, a project manager with Vierbicher, said.
The PSA gives the city and Vierbicher the ability to move forward with “the design of Well 5, including permitting, funding and construction activities.”
Cost for a Well 5 is estimated to be approximately $2.19 million, including construction of the test well, production well, pumphouse and other needed equipment, according to a memo from Vierbicher to the city of Prairie du Chien.
This past April, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued new standards for drinking water, which included setting the maximum contaminant levels of PFAS chemicals to four parts per trillion. Well 2 tested above the newly established limits in April 2024, and Well 1 tested above the new standards this past July. The city has tested their wells for PFAS since 2022.
Further testing completed on Well 1 in November showed the contaminant levels dropped below the EPA maximum allowable limits, according to Larry Gates, the city of Prairie du Chien utilities director. Well 1 has since been put back into operation.
Gates said the well will be tested quarterly to continue monitoring its PFAS levels.
“If we do have levels that increase, we’ll certainly take that offline again,” he told the council.
Well 2 remains offline, according to Gates. The PSA agreement says that the city has not decided whether it will be abandoned.
Without Wells 1 and 2 in operation, the city does not meet the peak hourly demand for water usage, which is approximately 2,362 gallons per minute. The city’s well capacity without the first two wells is around 1,400 g.p.m., nearly 1,000 g. below that peak usage.
Adding an additional well would allow the city to keep Well 1 in service, giving the city four functioning wells to draw from again. Gates said that the city can “just barely” meet its peak demand with Wells 1, 3 and 4, but the future of Well 1 is uncertain because of the previous high PFAS levels.
With the addition of a fifth well, Gates confirmed the city would “definitely meet the peaks” in water usage.
“I feel for the future of Prairie du Chien that a new well in a new location would benefit us as well,” Gates said to the council.
This past fall, Vierbicher completed a well-site investigation and funding analysis to identify financial sources the city can access to pay for the project.
This past October, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) approved a site for the well on a land parcel owned by the city, according to the PSA.
The area designated for Well 5 is west of 22nd Street and south of Campion Boulevard near the Alliant substation on the east side of the city.
Both Gates and Muchow confirmed that the proposed well would connect to the water system through a water main on 22nd Street.
The tentative schedule outlined in the PSA says the design phase will conclude in late June, regulatory approval will go through early December, bidding will take place around the turn of the year, construction will begin around May of next year and construction is expected to be completed at the end of 2026.
These dates are subject to change as the process goes forward.
Mayor David Hemmer favored construction of the new well, saying, “In the long term, I think that’s a lot smarter than messing around with either one of our old wells because you never know what you’re going to run into.”
Other options
And what could the city have run into if they had chosen a different option?
Muchow reviewed two other options the city and Vierbicher considered before bringing the PSA agreement to the council for approval.
Based on a recommendation made by the WDNR, the city considered reconstructing one of the existing wells to draw water from deeper underground.
Reconstruction of Well 2 would provide an estimated 600 g.p.m. a day, which isn’t enough to cover the peak shortage. Well 1 would provide 1,200 g.p.m.
Well 1 extends approximately 135 ft. underground, according to Gates. To avoid the PFAS, the well would need to bypass the sandstone bedrock underneath the city, which, according to the PSA summary, contains “a high amount of trace minerals, which should be avoided to improve chances of obtaining good water quality.”
To avoid the sandstone layer, the well casing would likely extend between 560 and 805 ft. below the ground surface.
“The negative with that option is there are different layers there... there are other contaminants we can run into at deeper levels. You could drill a test well, and with the test well, we could find high iron and radium, which would still require a treatment facility and add quite a bit of potential cost,” Muchow said.
The test well would have to be completed (and paid for) to know whether the deeper aquifer had high levels of contaminants, according to Gates.
Making a test well at that depth would cost approximately $300,000, according to Vierbicher.
The city explored the reconstruction option with Municipal Well and Pump, according to the PSA. To complete the reconstruction, partial demolition of the existing well would be required.
The cost for this option would be approximately $1.43 million, including the test well, Well 1 reconstruction and other equipment needs.
The other option would be to drill a new well adjacent to Well 1, install a pit-less unit over the new well, add a submersible well pump and connect the new well to the existing pumphouse.
“Ultimately, when we evaluated that option, it was a little more expensive than just drilling the new well deeper at the same location,” Muchow said. “And there’s space constraints on site that made that one less desirable.”
The cost of this option would be approximately $1.62 million, including the construction of the test well, the pitless well unit and other equipment.
Muchow also addressed the possibility of treating the PFAS contamination in the existing wells.
“What we didn’t touch on, which we already previously ruled out — other than the options presented here — is treating the PFAS. Doing a treatment facility for the PFAS is an option we ruled out pretty quickly just due to the upfront cost to construct the facility, and the ongoing maintenance is well above the cost listed here.”
Funding
Vierbicher will assist the city in navigating options to fund the well project. Muchow said the application for the WDNR Safe Drinking Water Loan Program is due June 30. Obtaining funding through the program will put the project on track to start construction next year.
To apply, the project needs to have biddable plans and specs, which Vierbicher is currently working on, according to Muchow.
“The DNR scores projects based on the projects they receive. So, there’s not a guarantee — there’s a loan amount and a likely principal forgiveness amount, and that’s essentially, in the DNR’s world, a grant,” he said.
Muchow expects the project to score points for addressing PFAS and said it was “likely” the city would receive principal forgiveness for some of the cost, and the rest would be a low-interest loan.
In attendance were alderpersons Andy Ringgold, Kayla Ingham, Mark Bowar, Bob Granzow, Vicki Waller, Nick Crary and Nate Bremmer. Hemmer, Abram and Police Chief Kyle Teynor were also present. Alderman-at-Large Jaaren Riebe was absent.
