The City of Seward has opened bids for two new wells to be drilled south of town in search of better quality water.
“The city’s wells currently have high nitrates in them,” said Tim Richtig, Seward’s water/wastewater director.
The nitrates are filtered out through a reverse osmosis system at the city water plant, making the water safe to drink.
“But that takes a lot of energy,” Richtig said.
Currently, the city’s nine wells pump out of the High Plains aquifer, an underground lake that provides water for most of Nebraska and parts of seven other Midwestern states.
One of the new wells, known as SW3, will be built out of an abandoned irrigation well in the city’s southwest well field, located on Superior Road about five miles west of Highway 15.
Richtig said tests from that site show no nitrates but a higher level of uranium and gross alpha – two contaminants that can be filtered out through reserve osmosis.
“Gross alpha is a product that comes out of blue clay,” Richtig said. “The area would be sealed off to prevent that.”
The second well, S4, will be south of the Seward Municipal Airport.
That well site was determined while searching for the Dakota Aquifer, which lies below the High Plains. The new well will be drilled deeper than the rest – to about 500 feet.
“The nitrates there are zero,” Richtig said.
The two new wells will be used in addition to the existing nine. They won’t replace any of the old ones at this time, Richtig said.
Both wells have been approved by the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources and the Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District.
The city did not yet have a cost estimate for the project, but construction bids will be accepted through April 19. The city’s budget currently has $400,000 allotted to well improvements.
Richtig said the S4 well should be completed by the end of this year, with SW3 built into next fiscal year’s city budget.
