The safety of your drinking water is important. With heavy reliance on the
use of chemicals in today’s world, the dangers of accidental spills and the threat of terrorism, we need
to have a plan to protect our drinking water supplies.
We are fortunate to have an abundant and safe supply of drinking water. The conditions that allow us to
have this abundance has the downside of making our water supply highly susceptible to contamination. We do
not have a contaminated water supply, but if there were an accidental spill or deliberate introduction of
contaminate, it would move quickly through our aquifer and potentially contaminate the water supply. By
development of the Protection Plan we put in place measures to protect the water supply.
Preparing the Protection Plan
The first step in developing the Protection Plan was the identification of a
protection zone. The picture below shows the protection zone for our wells. It is divided into an inner
zone and an outer zone. The boundary of the outer zone is where contaminates would take five years to
enter the wells. The boundary of inner zone is where contaminates would take one year to enter the wells.
The majority of the protection area consists of agricultural land within the Bolivar Dam flowage easement.
This limits the potential uses to agriculture with scattered oil and gas wells.
Our Protection Areas
Relationship of Wilkshire Hills Community Water System Wells to Countywide Landfill
Wellhead Protection Zones
How are the wells being protected?
•
Working with the farmers to use best
management practices and to select crops that minimize the use
of nitrogen fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides.
• Township zoning of the protection zone
to restrict development that may present a threat to the water
supply.
• Extension of sanitary sewers within the
protection zones to eliminate the use of septic tanks.
• Development of an education and out-
reach program to inform and educate the public on the importance
of protecting their water supply.
• Installing monitoring wells to detect
contamination of the protection zone, allowing sufficient time
to treat or remove the contaminate, or develop an alternate
water supply.
What You Can Do To Protect Your Water Supply
Automotive
DO: Recycle used oil and antifreeze at service stations, have automotive
fluid leaks fixed, Clean up spills immediately, and drive only when necessary.
DON'T: Pour used oil, antifreeze, or other chemicals on the ground or down
a storm drain.
Storm Drains
DO: Take unwanted chemicals to hazardous waste collection sites.
DON'T: Pour chemicals into storm drains, drainage ditches, or sinkholes.
Yard Maintenance
DO: Apply chemicals only as directed - more is not always better; Cultivate
plants which will discourage pests - this reduces pesticide usage; leave lawn clippings on
lawn or compost them, pull weeds by hand; and clean up after pets.
DON'T: Don't over apply fertilizers, herbicides or pesticide; and use gas-powered
leaf blowers or weed trimmers.
