DEKALB COUNTY, Ind. — An northern Ohio Mayor wants to sell water from a regional aquifer, but residents in Dekalb County, Indiana across the border are opposed to that plan.
Pioneer, Ohio gets it’s water from the Michindoh Aquifer. The plan from Mayor Ed Kidston is to extract even more water from the aquifer and then sell it to the city of Toledo. Residents in Dekalb County, who also get their water from the aquifer, have a little problem with that.
“This aquifer is our only source of water,” said Bill Hartman with Concerned Citizens of Dekalb County. “If we open this up to this kind of extraction, we figure many other companies will want to do the same, particularly bottled water companies.”
Hartman said that would put an unnecessary strain on the aquifer which recharges slowly. He adds Mayor Kidston has no plans giving a portion of the profits from the sale of water to Toledo to surrounding communities who also draw from the Michindoh Aquifer.
They are getting lost of support from the state representatives on the issue, according to Hartman, but he says Ohio residents opposed to this plan are not as lucky.
“They’re having a hard time getting attention from officials in Ohio and we don’t understand why,” Hartman said. “They are actually the ones leading the opposition to this plan.”
Hartman said a group of Ohio residents objecting to the project was part of a group that studied the output of the aquifer back in 2007. That study concluded that any extra extraction from the aquifer would cost local residents an extra $11 million.
“That’s just not possible for small counties up here with small populations to foot that kind of bill,” Hartman said.
(PHOTO: Thinkstock)
