5,000 feet down may hold the solution for Osceola’s chloride waste

A local solution to chloride waste removal and disposal is getting closer as Osceola presses forward with an injection well project, the first of its kind in the state. At the Feb. 17 meeting of the Osceola City Council, Randy Johnson of Veenstra & Kimm reported to the council that nearly a year after being put on hold, the project for a deep injection well is once again moving forward.

Osceola has been battling chloride waste for a number of years. In 2024, the city began looking into an effluent reuse concept in response to drought conditions, which would put treated wastewater back into the West Lake watershed. Part of the cleaning process would involve chloride removal by way of the reverse osmosis, but would still leave the question of what to do with the chloride byproduct. While on-site storage in a lagoon was initially considered, the Iowa DNR determined that would not be a viable long-term solution for the waste. Thus came the proposal of a deep injection well.

An injection well would extend about 4,500 to 5,000 feet into the earth to the Mount Simon Aquifer, one of the oldest aquifers in the Midwest, and deposit the chloride waste stream there. After back-and-forths with the Iowa DNR, the agency ultimately decided they had too many concerns with the concept and the project stalled. After amending an engineering report, Johnson said a response was received earlier in February that approval for the project through the EPA has been granted.

“Part of our plan in the treatment train to remove the chloride, remove any forever chemicals, we will have a deep injection well,” Johnson said.

The well

As part of the EPA’s permitting process, a test well has to be drilled with samples of water obtained at each aquifer level. Once in the Mount Simon, the sample of the water’s native salinity needs to exceed 10,000 mg/L, indicating the water is not worthwhile to treat and eligible for waste discharge.

“Nobody really uses that aquifer because it is very, very, very poor quality, not even good for livestock,” Johnson said.

Johnson explained the test well, which will also be the permanent well, will take between eight and 10 weeks of 24/7 drilling to reach the approximate 5,000-feet depth into the earth. The well will be sleeved as the drilling goes on to prevent leaking from aquifers into one another. Councilwoman Luci Sullivan inquired if residents would be affected by any noise or vibrations from the drilling, which Johnson said should be far enough away there would be very minimal, if any, impact.

The well has a life-expectancy of about 50 years. The exact amount of waste discharge that could be injected daily into the well will be determined after testing. The wastewater treatment plant will not inject any water that can be retained to be blended into the wastewater discharge.

Once the EPA receives the samples from the well, Johnson said it will be a minimum 18 months after that to get the permit to inject. By drilling the well now and working on other project components in the interim, the city will be ahead of the game once a permit is issued.

“The well, to me, is critical because the disposal of the chlorides has been the puzzle, not the removal,” Osceola City Administrator Ty Wheeler said. “We have to have the disposal aspect of this figured out… [if] something happens where it’s not a concept for disposal, then we’re removing chlorides without a way to get rid of them... That’s why the well piece really comes first.”

Johnson said next month the city can proceed with work on securing a loan for planning and design.

“Osceola has been on the front line of leading the charge of water quality and having drinkable water, both on the treatment side and wastewater side,” Osceola Mayor Thomas Kedley said. “This is a no-brainer that says, Osceola, we’re still doing our part. We may not get help from you state, we’ll go the feds. We need to solve this water crisis.”

Questions were raised by council about Osceola Foods’ financial responsibility in the project, as they contribute a large amount of the chloride waste through the use of salt in the bacon processing. Osceola Foods had attempted on a pre-treatment basis to remove the chlorides but found it was not feasible, and also ran into the issue of what to do with the waste.

Wheeler and Johnson both said Osceola Foods had been cooperative through the chloride removal process thus far and didn’t see that changing, but more conversations with them would be forthcoming. In regards to the new wastewater treatment plant, Osceola Foods paid for roughly 47% of the $44 million plant.

Discussion was also had that the well could be a first piece in the reuse/recirculation concept, especially for water that would have non-contact industrial uses, which Johnson said Osceola Foods would likely be interested in blending water for their cooling uses.

B3

By a 4-1 vote, council approved the first reading and waived the second and third readings of a proposed amendment to the B-3 Commercial/Interstate District to add passenger and commercial motor vehicle service as a permitted use; Sullivan voted no to the first reading and waiving of second and third readings.

After the second reading of a proposed amendment to the permitted uses in the B-3 Commercial/Interstate District failed to pass Jan. 20, it was back to the drawing board for planning and zoning. Originally, a proposal from Southern Tire Mart at Pilot had requested of the commission to move auto body repair shops from an excluded use to a conditional use. The council had gone back and forth on the issue since November when a public hearing was held on the matter. At the time, council voted against the amendment but later voted to reconsider the proposed amendment at a future date.

At their February meeting, planning and zoning proposed a new permitted use that would allow for lighter service work anticipated by Southern Tire Mart, such as oil and tire changes, but not identifying auto body or collision work.

Wheeler said per the city’s attorney, another public hearing was not required as the amendment proposal was still a part of the same process that has been ongoing. Kedley thanked planning and zoning for working on the zoning issue and recognized that growing pains for a community include zoning issues that need addressed as they arise. Councilman Dr. George Fotiadis noted that the permitted use was pretty restrictive, and not akin to “auto graveyards” or “junk storage.”

In other council news…

Council approved city staff to investigate a School Resource Officer position to be shared via 28E agreement with Clarke Community Schools; an overview of the discussion and proposed position will appear in next week’s paper.

Three public hearings were set for 7 p.m. March 3: one for the proposed conditional use of “mixed-use ground floor residential with commercial storefront,” one to repeal Chapter 112, “Cable television franchise and regulations,” and an amendment to 167.06 “Home Occupations.