The Baldwin City Council is moving forward with an ordinance to ban private water wells in the city, but the action may come too late to prevent the first active well from being dug.

At its June 15 meeting, the City Council considered the first reading of an ordinance, which would ban the digging of private water wells. The ordinance had the support of City Administrator Glenn Rodden, City Attorney Blake Glover and Public Works Director Rob Culley.

The ordinance was drafted in the wake of two recent applications to dig water wells in the city. The permit applications by the owners of the new car wash on U.S. Highway 56 and by resident Dan Nelson, 102 Dearborn St., were made with the county health department, which has the jurisdiction to issue well permits in Baldwin City because there is no local ordinance giving the city jurisdiction over water wells. That was a concern to council members because the county’s control of the permit process created doubt about whether the city could monitor backflow devices designed to prevent untreated well water from mixing with city-treated water in the “cross connected” systems of residents or businesses.

Culley told council members there were no active wells in the city supplying water for private use. However, he said an ordinance banning private wells was needed to protect the city’s investment in its water system, to protect the water table should the city need to dig wells for municipal use in the future and to protect the city-treated water supply from any contamination from a cross connection with a private system using untreated water from a private well.

Culley said the county denied Nelson’s application based on the city’s objections. The car wash application was withdrawn when the city insisted that there could be no cross connection of the private well system with the city water supply and that the owner would have to use either well water or city water exclusively.

Nelson told the council that the county shouldn’t have denied his application just because the city objected to it. The denial, he said, had to be justified by an ordinance or code conflict, which he said didn’t exist. Nelson said he still had the right to appeal the county’s permit denial with the county or the state.

He was planning to use the well for irrigation on his property and perhaps for residential use, he said; if he chose the residential use option, he would disconnect from the city water system so there would be no cross connection.

Councilman Scott Lauridsen said Nelson’s permit was a separate issue from the ordinance under consideration. He also doubted that passage of the ordinance would have any bearing on Nelson’s permit application or on any appeal of its denial because Nelson’s actions predated the council’s consideration of the ordinance.

However, Lauridsen and other council members supported the ordinance to keep the city free of private-use wells and to ensure there wouldn’t be any backflow devices that the city didn’t have jurisdiction to monitor. The council will consider passage of the ordinance at its second reading at its July 6 meeting.