Davis health board urges cities to protect wells

FARMINGTON — The Davis County Board of Health is urging all 15 Davis County cities and the Davis County commission to create ordinances protecting drinking-water wells.

Currently, four cities — Layton, Bountiful, Centerville and Fruit Heights — have such ordinances.

"These are precious resources that we have to take care of," said Davis County Health Department director Lewis Garrett.

The cost to protect a well pales in comparison to the cost of replacing a contaminated one, he said.

The ordinances the health board wants cities to use include zoning to determine how close to a wellhead certain businesses can operate.

Water providers are required to have source protection plans in place for the 68 wells in Davis County. The plans show how pollution could affect the water pumped from wells. And the plans, which are professionally done, are nice, Garrett said. But if a well is located in another city, the water provider has no way to make sure a well stays protected.

That's where the board's resolution comes in.

Garrett said the board worked with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality and Salt Lake Valley Health Department to tweak a model ordinance created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Garrett's department will send the model ordinance to Davis County cities along with the health board's resolution, which states, "municipal zoning requirements can ensure best management practices, proper design standards and land management strategies are used to protect drinking water sources from potential contamination."

The ordinance says each city will treat each well located in its borders as its own well and that it will consider the wells when permitting businesses to operate.

If a business, such as auto repair, wants to locate in a well's recharge zone and needs a variance because there's a potential for leaking oil, the ordinance requires that the health department be consulted as to how to best protect the well.

The source-protection ordinance doesn't ban businesses, Garrett said.

"You have to engineer safeguards," he said.

For example, if a business needs an underground storage tank, there needs to be a secondary containment in case the tank leaks.

Dee Jette, an environmental health scientist with the county health department, told the health board in June the contamination threat to wells is real.