Supervisors press for aquifer monitoring; staff to seek cost estimates and models

Eric provided an update on options for establishing aquifer monitoring in Dubuque County and said staff had reached out to Linn and Johnson counties for models. He said Johnson County had partnered with USGS on a roughly $500,000, four-year cost-share study and suggested Linn County’s program might serve as a model for establishing monitoring wells in Dubuque County.

Several supervisors and commenters argued the county should prioritize drilling monitoring wells rather than commissioning another costly multi-year study. One board member said a monitoring well could be drilled for "around 20,000" and recommended starting with a small number of wells to gather hard data rather than relying only on projections. Joe Bradley, a local resident, offered a contractor's perspective and said "just for residential at 500 feet is a minimum of $50" in on-the-spot cost reporting; staff said well cost varies by depth and local conditions.

Eric committed to developing an initial ballpark estimate for a fully functional monitoring well and to report back at the next data center meeting on Sept. 28. Supervisors discussed whether monitoring should be tied to the ordinance process or run separately; the Chair said the ordinance drafting and monitoring implementation will proceed on separate but parallel tracks.