“The city failed to show that the project would not have a detrimental effect on the aquifer, including on the drinking water wells of neighboring communities such as Providence,” said division Director Erica Gaddis. But according to the Utah Division of Water Quality, injections didn’t do much for pushing down nitrate levels over time. The goal was to dilute the groundwater there with pure spring water to extend the life of the well. Town officials had hoped that the spring water injection program would salvage Millville’s Glenridge well, which has long registered nitrate levels just below the drinking water standard of 10 milligrams per liter. Many of the 54 lots that had been identified for new homes cannot get developed until Millville gets linked into Logan’s wastewater-treatment system. To just put on a moratorium is very hard. “I feel bad about how the whole thing happened. It really hurts these young couples who just bought a lot they can’t build on,” Mayor David Hair said. “Because of the moratorium, retired families can’t sell their land. But nitrate pollution under this Cache Valley town, associated with septic systems and agriculture, is forcing town leaders to abandon an innovative water storage program. Millville Mayor David Hair visits his city’s Glenridge well, where the town was injecting spring water as part of an effort to store drinking water underground. What these actions mean for Millville, a strictly residential community of modest homes, is a quadruple whammy with dire financial implications. “For infants under 6 months of age, if they drink water contaminated with nitrates above 10, they could get severely ill,” he said at the Board of Health meeting where the moratorium was approved. Nitrate pollution associated with septic systems can degrade aquatic ecosystems and be toxic to humans by disrupting the ability of hemoglobin to move oxygen, according to Richard Worley, the health department’s environmental health deputy director. The Bear River Health Department jumped in and imposed a moratorium on new septic systems. The DEQ identified Millville’s septic systems as a source of the nitrates and ramped up pressure on the town to connect to a sewer system as neighboring towns, including Providence, Hyrum and Nibley, did 15 years ago. ![]() But the plan went awry last month after the Utah Department of Environmental Quality rejected the town’s groundwater injection permit because it appeared the well selected for the project would push nitrate contamination downhill to wells used by the neighboring town of Providence. Millville was to be a test case for a practice called “aquifer storage and recovery,” or ASR, seen as a partial solution to Utah’s uncertain water future.
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