Drop in water levels worries towns around region

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John Dillon, Batavia water superintendent, reviews a history of water levels at Batavia Water Well 4 on the far east side of town. Photo by Emily Cikanek, courtesy of Metropolitan Planning Council.

Updated: November 24, 2011 8:05AM

BATAVIA — John Dillon has a good sense of history.

As water superintendent for the city of Batavia, he has to.

In fact, almost everyone doing a similar job throughout the Chicago suburban area has to have that sense of history, to get an idea of what is happening to the water supply throughout the area.

Last week, supervising a test of the water level at one of Batavia’s wells, Dillon said that when the city drilled its first public well in 1895 and its second well in 1915, city records “talked about free-flowing water.”

That means the water flowed up close to ground level freely. In contrast, by the time Batavia closed its Well 2 in 2007, the water level there had dropped to about 400 feet below the surface. The city’s population — and demand for water — has continued to grow.

Similarly, towns throughout the Chicago area have seen population explode and residential and commercial developments crop up, all using one of mankind’s most precious commodities — potable water.

Many area towns — a total of about 80, as well as the counties of Kane, Kendall, DeKalb, Lake and McHenry — recently formed the Northwest Water Planning Alliance.

The cities involved in the alliance do not get any water allocation from Lake Michigan, and likely never will. That means they get their water supply largely from a combination of deep and shallow wells, with some alternatives, such as the Fox River, thrown in.

But generally speaking, it means they are all getting their water from the same pot, whether deep or shallow aquifers, so they have a reason to work together to assure future supply.

“We all know aquifers do not mesh with governmental boundaries,” Dillon said. “The only alternative towns are going to have is to go deeper, or find another source.”

The alliance this month is testing levels at deep wells around the region and reporting the findings to the Illinois State Water Survey.

The alliance asked its members with wells about 500 feet deep or deeper to record non-pumping well water levels on any day during a two-week period this month.

Batavia tested its Well 4 last week, and Aurora tested Well 26 Monday morning.

In Batavia, Well 4, nestled in a neighborhood on the southeast side of town, is a peak well, only pumping during high usage times. Still, records at that well indicate the water level there has dropped about 200 feet since the well was drilled in 1979.

Batavia, like most towns in the area, has naturally occurring radium in water taken from deep wells. So, it mixes that water with water from shallow wells to lessen the amount of radium to a safe level in the water that goes out to homes.

But that means towns like Batavia have to watch how much they take from the deep wells.

As Batavia tested its well in the rain last week, Josh Ellis, of the Metropolitan Planning Commission pointed out that the rainfall “helps recharge the shallow aquifers.”

“But what about the deep?” he said. “It takes thousands of years to recharge the deep aquifers.”

One of the efforts the water alliance will pursue is water usage efficiency standards and practices.

“I’m not opposed to lawn watering, but we tell people they need to be smart,” Dillon said. “We can’t afford to wait. We need to preserve water for the future.”