By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
Elkhorn’s Municipal Services and Utilities Committee voted in favor of devoting an additional $60,000 to repairs on Elkhorn’s Well No. 7 at it’s meeting Monday night.
The decision came after City of Elkhorn Electric and Water Utilities Director John Murphy informed the committee Well No. 7 has lost yield.
Murphy said the department pulled the well and when televising the well made it to about the 1,200-foot depth of the approximately 1,865-foot deep well before they discovered it was bridged off, or plugged.
Murphy said they broke through the bridge, although the well eventually bridged off again further down, and when they broke it up a second time, ended up with about 50-feet of debris at the bottom of the hole.
According to Murphy, this is the second time the well has bridged off, the first time being in 2009.
With a couple of choices, Murphy said the department opted to surge the well – essentially using suction to remove the blockage – over air blasting which could damage the well. In doing so however, he said they bridged the well off again.
“It’s a very extensive operation, that’s why it’s taken this long,” he said.
Murphy said with current equipment, the City will not be able to pump from the well what it is required to pump. Instead of rebuilding the equipment, Murphy said it’s cheaper to simply replace the worn vents in the well, an additional cost of about $14,000.
Additionally, Murphy said the motor for the well – which he said is about 20-years-old – was sent in for re-conditioning. He said when the motor was purchased, the brand was essentially “the Cadillac of your submersible motors.”
However, where the problem arises is that the motor is mercury sealed. Murphy said when they were tearing the motor apart, they found a mercury leak. Murphy clarified that mercury did not leak into the well.
“If that mercury would have gotten in our well, we would have been abandoning our well and moving over somewhere else,” he said. “That did not happen, but you have issues with that motor.”
Murphy said the Environmental Protection Agency won’t even allow for mercury-sealed motors to be installed in the wells anymore.
As a result, Murphy said the City has two options: to convert the motor over to a double-sealed system, costing about $40,000, or purchasing a new motor for $32,000. He said a new motor would additionally come with a 10-year warranty.
Unfortunately however, procuring the motor from the same manufacturer, Byron Jackson, would take six to seven weeks, according to Murphy. He said they’re attempting to find one “sitting on someone’s shelf,” that meets the City’s needs, but it’s not a guarantee.
Murphy said he’s received information that through another manufacturer, the soonest they could get a new motor would be two to three weeks.
“We don’t have a choice,” he said.
With the urgency of the situation, committee members Gary Payson, Sr., Gregory Huss and Hoss Rehberg voted unanimously in favor of approving up to an additional $60,000 to cover the costs to make the needed repairs.
In other business, the City Council held a committee of the whole meeting Monday night to discuss alternative options to the sex offender ordinance with a representative from the Department of Corrections. For a full story, visit mywalworthcounty.com. Additionally, the City of Elkhorn Finance Committee opted to take on the entirety of façade repairs at Matheson Memorial Library, rather than split costs with the library as previously approved.
