FAIRBURY, NE — By a 6-2 vote, the Fairbury City Council decided to not move forward with a proposed water sourcing project at its meeting Tuesday night. 

The vote means the city will not file an updated application to the USDA for funding for a potential well field northwest of Fairbury as a source of water. 

Only council members Doug Brown and Tim Polson voted for the measure. The others, Kelly Davis, Brad Kuzelka, Brian Schmidt, Dusty Schmidt, John Ebke and Phil Rogge voted it down. 

The proposed project would have had a price tag of about $20 million, with cost being split between the City of Fairbury and Little Blue Natural Resources District. Fairbury's share of the cost would have been around $11.4 million. 

At issue during the meeting was nitrate levels. The city is looking for a new water source as nitrate levels rise at the city's current well field, known as the East Wellfield. Fairbury also has another set of wells known as the Crystal Springs Wells, but those have not been used since 2021 due to biofilm causing issues with the wells. 

The city also looked at the option of building a nitrate treatment plant, but the costs associated with it made it just as, if not more, expensive than constructing the new well field. Miller and Associates, the engineering firm working with the city to plan the project, estimated costs associated with building a plant to treat the East Wellfield would mount to $11.2 million to $14.2 million. 

Even with a new well field, the concern that nitrates at the new site would eventually rise to dangerous levels, therefore putting the city in the same position it is now, remained for some city councilors. 

Councilman Davis said he wished to table the vote since the council was presented with updated costs of their options and on the nitrate levels earlier in the meeting. He said he wanted time to absorb and think over the new information. Brown and Polson's motion, however, was enough to prompt a vote at the meeting. 

Other council members said they wanted to look more into solving the biofilm issue at the Crystal Springs wells to be able to use them again. City Project Manager and former City Administrator Mary Renn said during the meeting the water in that area is safe to drink, but can't be pumped due to the biofilm in the pumps. Before being shutoff, the city was replacing the pump's filters every 10-14 days to keep using them. 

Renn estimated it would cost about $260,000 a year if they were to replace the filters once a month, but Fairbury would most likely need to replace the filters 2-3 times per month. There was also some belief a new pipeline would need to be installed to replace aging infrastructure. 

For now, the city is continuing to use the East Wellfield.