At present the city gets its water from the Jamesport Lake.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
Find out how to advertise here - Email us! [email protected]
Jamesport is looking for a new source of public drinking water. At present the city gets its water from the Jamesport Lake. Jamesport Mayor J.L. Eckleberry said the Department of Natural Resources will eventually require above ground water storage facilities to install a system to filter out chemical pollutants from runoffs. Such a system would be costly.
“It amounts to numbers,” said Mayor Eckleberry. “We don’t have enough customers to do something like that.”
While there is no urgency to the problem, Mayor Eckleberry said the council is looking ahead to the future: “The DNR is going to get fussy about it one of these days and make us do something. We’re trying to get a plan in place before that deadline hits.”
In the past, Jamesport has had chemical run-off of atrazine in its water.
“It’s not been at that high a level,” said Mayor Eckleberry. “If it had been that bad, they’d have shut us down.”
The Jamesport City Council had a feasibility study done to determine the best outside source for water. Results of that study were discussed at their March 13 meeting.
“Lock Springs (Livingston County #4) would be the obvious choice since it’s closest,” said Mayor Eckleberry, “But they can’t handle us.”
Daviess County #2 proved a concern because of the ability to transport the water all the way across the district in sufficient quantity to satisfy the needs of the city.
“We looked into Gallatin, but they want to save water in case their industrial park materializes,” said the mayor.
Grundy County #1, which purchases its water from the city of Trenton, was seen as the best possible source of water for the city. The Trenton plant is only at one-half capacity, meaning there is an ample supply of water.
Council members felt the Grundy County solution would provide the best alternative in the shortest amount of time.
The board has forwarded a letter of inquiry to the Grundy County Water District to determine its willingness to add the city of Jamesport to its customer base and requesting assurance that the district has the ability to supply the city’s needs.