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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, April 22, 2013 7:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 2 of 18 (3. WELLHEAD PROTECTION PLAN, PART 2, Continued) Phase I of the plan requires communities to delineate the wellhead protection area, identify the drinking water supply management area boundaries, and perform the well and drinking water supply management area vulnerability assessment. Due to the size of Orono’s system, the state provided assistance to complete Phase I. Cities with public water systems are required to delineate inventory and manage an inner wellhead management zone, create a formal wellhead protection plan. Part I has already being completed by the City. Part II involves the creation of the wellhead protection plan itself. In order to complete Part II of the City’s Wellhead Protection Plan, a public hearing is required to be held. The purpose of the hearing is to allow members of the public to comment on the report before it is submitted to the Minnesota Department of Health for final approval. Wellhead protection is an ongoing process, the plans need to be periodically reviewed and updated by the City. It is mandatory that every ten years the City update its plan to make sure it reflects current conditions. Other required amendments include if another public well is added or if there are overlapping boundaries with the wellhead management area and an adjacent jurisdiction. The purpose of the plan is to provide some specific action or controls that the City intends to take to control potential contaminant sources. In broad terms, the City is required to educate its citizens about how well water is used and how wells can impact local water supply and quality. It also requires the City locate any missing or unknown wells, seal unused or abandoned wells, raise well owner awareness and prevent contamination of city water supply via private wells, identify new private wells for location within the City’s management area, identify new high-capacity wells that are proposed for construction in the management area, effectively manage the inner wellhead management zone to reduce the likelihood of contaminants from entering the well at a level that could cause human health impacts, effectively manage the water supply system to minimize unaccounted for water, collect and tabulate additional data such as ground water elevations, well driller logs, and data relative to the local ground water, report and evaluate the data collected in order to ensure that the City’s drinking water supply is protected, and then make any adjustments to the plans as conditions change over time. The City currently has three wells. Wells one and two are located in the Navarre area and well number three is east of City Hall down by Willow Road and Old Highway 12. A hard copy of the draft report has been provided for the public to view at City Hall and an electronic copy is available on the City’s website. McMillan asked how this might impact citizens. Martini indicated it should not have any direct impact on the vast majority of the citizens unless their well is connected to the City’s drinking water supply. From a land use perspective, if a well is located within the management areas, the City may be interested in knowing whether there is gasoline or chemicals stored on the property, but in general there will not be any impact to the residents. McMillan opened the public hearing at 7:11 p.m. There were no comments regarding this item. Item #03 - CC Agenda - 05/13/2013 Approval of Council Minutes 04/22/2013 [Page 2 of 18]