Colwell may have town water problem solved within the month

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Colwell got a ton of help with its city water problem Tuesday, quite literally, and may be in for a big Christmas present as well.

The community, which has been advised to not drink the public water supply for a couple of months now, got a second pallet of drinking water donated by Hy-Vee in Charles City. The 2,016 half-liter bottles were loaded into the back of Mayor Jeff Wright’s pickup truck to be taken back to Colwell and distributed as needed.

The community discovered in September that the well that supplied water to the town of fewer than 50 people has pea-gravel-size holes in the well casing, which allows soil, sand and small rocks to infiltrate the well.

Boring a new well and getting it plumbed and operating will cost about $150,000, Wright told the Press Tuesday.

The town has applied for a grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture that they hope will cover 80% to 90% of the cost, Wright said. The rest would likely be paid through an Iowa Rural Water Association low interest loan that would be paid back quarterly.

Wright said he hopes to receive word on the USDA grant by next week, and if it covers the majority of the cost the new well could be drilled and operating by Christmas or shortly thereafter.

“The new well has been located 8 feet south of our city water building,” Wright said. “It’s been approved by the DNR (Iowa Department of Natural Resources) and Kisch Excavating has dug down and there’s nothing there, so we’re ready to drill. We’re just waiting for funding right now. I’m hoping mid-next week we can make some decisions on exactly where we’re going.”

If the USDA grant comes back at substantially less than hoped, the town will likely have to explore additional funding sources, he said.

The old well is currently operating at a fraction of its capacity, which helps avoid suctioning sand, dirt and pebbles through the casing holes so the water that is being pumped is usable.

The water can be used for laundry, cleaning, bathing and flushing, but people are still being advised to not drink it.

Since they can’t monitor the well 24 hours a day, they can’t be sure that something isn’t introduced into the water that then makes it into the city water system.

“I’m real cautious about anybody having any problem with it,” Wright said. “It’s chlorinated. The tests have all tested good, but just to be on the on the safe side, we do not want you to drink it.”

The new well will be very similar to the old one, he said – six inches in diameter and about 300 feet deep, with a 7½ horsepower pump.

“The only reason ours is bad is the casing went bad, but when we pump real slow out of this one there is good water there. You just can’t pump too fast so the good water can get all the way from the 300 foot clear up to the pump without sucking the dirty water in from the sides,” the mayor said.

“It’ll get to the point where we won’t be able to pump slow enough to get the water through, but hopefully by then we’ll have a new new system in place,” he said.

Once the new well is drilled the existing chlorine injection system will be hooked up and the well plumbed to the city’s water system.

Wright said he’s thankful for everyone who has helped out, including Floyd County Emergency Management Coordinator Jason Webster who worked with Hy-Vee to have the first pallet of drinking water donated and now the second pallet this week.

“It’s all a community effort,” Wright said. “A lot of neighbors are coming in to help us, and I’m just absolutely thankful for everybody.”

Once the City Council can make some funding decisions, Wright said, he is thinking about calling a public meeting to let everyone know what is going on as far as a solution.

“The problem is we have no water, so we really don’t have a whole lot of choice,” he said, regarding drilling a new well. “We’ve got water, but we don’t have drinkable good water.”