The Verndale City Council passed a new ordinance Sept. 4 requiring the 17 households still on private wells to connect to city water if and when certain benchmarks are triggered.
But the council left enough flexibility in the law to allow homeowners to keep their well water if nitrate levels are kept under control.
The ordinance calls for private well owners to get their water tested yearly and prove to the city their drinking water contains less than 10 parts per million of nitrates. The installation of filtration systems such as reverse-osmosis filters can be used to maintain nitrate levels below the threshold.
Mayor Wayne Stave asked for one change to the ordinance, which would have set up a trigger that would have required well owners to connect to city water if "any improvements, modifications or changes are made to the property which require a building permit."
Stave said a fence or deck would count as an improvement, which wasn't the city's intent. Instead, the language in the ordinance was changed to say the improvements would have to both be to the dwelling and require a building permit in order to trigger the ordinance.
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Improvements such as replacing windows or fixing a roof wouldn't trigger the ordinance, as Verndale city code only requires a building permit for dwelling improvements if the improvements include changing the footprint size of the dwelling.
The ordinance was also altered to say if the property is title-transferred, city water must be connected. The original language said if the property was sold it would trigger hookup to city water, but someone pointed out a home could be deeded to a child (but not sold) and not require hookup.
Council members said they're not trying to inconvenience the 17 homeowners, but also want to protect residents' health and protect its investment in a municipal water system.
No one from the public commented on the ordinance as it passed, but residents had approached the council in the past and asked for some concessions that were included in the ordinance, such as grandfathering in properties until they're sold, and allowing filtration systems as a stop-gap measure.
