The future of a study to predict the effects of city wells on groundwater supplies in the central part of Washington County needs help from two watershed districts.
County Board members voted last week to send letters to the South Washington and Valley Branch watershed districts asking them to participate in a study after a grant sought from the state got less than half the requested funding.
The proposal, originally for $300,000, would study the possible effects of future city wells in Woodbury, Oakdale, Lake Elmo and Cottage Grove on groundwater supplies.
In addition, it would assess how private wells in those areas, plus those in Afton and West Lakeland Township, would be affected.
The study would also include the effects of city water draw downs on Valley Creek in Afton, which is also a trout stream.
ADVERTISEMENT
The grant, from the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources, was approved for $125,000. It would restrict the scope of the study, according to Cindy Weckwerth, County Department of Health and Environment.
Weckwerth said the City of Woodbury has indicated it will contribute.
If only the existing grant is used, $37,500 will be for water monitoring; $62,500 for computer models and the remainder to assemble the report and its conclusions.
