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Hermiston approves $200,000 purchase of monitoring well for aquifer storage and recovery project
Summary
The council adopted Resolution 23-60 to buy an existing groundwater well for $200,000 to serve as a monitoring well for the city's aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) project; staff said the well had elevated PCE above OHA limits and will not be used for injection but can serve for monitoring.
Hermiston’s City Council adopted Resolution 23-60 on March 10 to authorize purchase of an existing groundwater well for $200,000 to include it in the monitoring network for the city’s aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) project.
Assistant City Manager Morgan outlined the technical rationale: the city’s ASR program will inject treated surface water into a deep aquifer during winter months and recover it in summer. For regulatory approval, the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) requires a monitoring-well plan. Staff recommended buying an existing deep well (identified in staff materials as Monitoring Well 1, adjacent to a Pioneer Seeds facility) to provide a closer, deep monitoring point for ASR 3. Morgan said the well is roughly a 1,200-foot hole on a quarter-acre parcel; its water rights were previously transferred and the site now functions as a deep observation well.
Morgan reported that prior water-quality testing showed perchloroethylene (PCE) levels above Oregon Health Authority (OHA) drinking-water limits in samples taken in 2023 and in follow-up samples in April; groundwater consultant GSI recommended against using the well as an injection/production ASR well because injecting could mobilize contamination. Morgan said GSI did not recommend abandoning the well entirely; it remains suitable as a monitoring well to measure groundwater level and serve the OWRD monitoring requirement. Morgan also said possible longer-term city uses — including remediation or conversion to a production well if contamination can be addressed and costs justify it — remain conceptual.
Councilors asked questions about bubble interaction between potential ASR wells, nitrate risk and future road or site changes; staff said the deep basalt-capped aquifer targeted for ASR is separated from shallow nitrate concerns and that planned ASR operations are designed to avoid pulling original ambient groundwater into production.
The motion to adopt Resolution 23-60 was moved by Councilor McCarthy and seconded by Councilor Hayward. The vote was recorded as unanimous (6–0).
