Urbandale approves noise variance for ASR well, council urged by utility to back project for resiliency and rate stability

The Urbandale City Council approved a noise-ordinance waiver for the Urban Water Utilitys proposed Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) well after a public hearing and presentation from utility staff. The council also approved a council letter supporting the project (council letter 8302).

Neil Weiss of the Urban Water Utility described public outreach and a noise-mitigation plan for the well-drilling phase. Weiss said the utility mailed letters to nearby properties, conducted door-to-door outreach (reaching five of six homes in a subdivision north of the site), met with Radian Elementary School, included information on recent utility bills and placed notices on city and utility websites. He said the environmental review included outreach to 35 to 40 special-interest groups and that the utility received no comments back from those contacts.

Weiss told the council the ASR well would be a 3,000,000-gallon-per-day facility and said the upfront capital cost for building the ASR well is estimated at $15,000,000. He compared that to the regional alternative of purchasing additional capacity from Central Iowa Water Works, which he said estimates about $20,000,000 per 1,000,000 gallons of capacity (a $60,000,000 capital-equivalent for the same 3,000,000-gallon capacity). Weiss described the ASR well as improving distribution resiliency, emergency preparedness for main breaks, and long-term water-rate stability.

For noise mitigation during well drilling, the utility plans a roughly 30-foot-tall sound-attenuation wall around the site and said the same consultant used successful projects in West Des Moines and Des Moines Water Works. Weiss said those projects recorded very low decibel readings outside the wall and that the loudest readings were at nearby pickleball courts in the West Des Moines example.

Councilmembers asked about outreach methods and whether billing notices were sent to paperless customers; Weiss confirmed both paper and paperless customers received notices. Members also asked about whether additional ASR wells could be added in the future; Weiss said adding capacity is governed by procedures in the regions 2080 agreement and by the Central Iowa Water Works treatment capacity.

A motion to open the public hearing passed. No members of the public spoke during the hearing. The council later voted to approve council letter 8302 (motion recorded as passed). The motion to approve the letter was seconded by Councilmember Cacciatore and the motion passed.

The utility and trustees will continue project permitting, design and outreach work as the council provided the waiver for drilling noise during construction.