Last week, City Manager Michael Joyal announced the city had taken the Ireland Well that draws from the Pudding Hill Aquifer offline after it found an increasing concentration of perfluorinated compounds.
However, it exceeded those levels of 70 parts per trillion earlier this month.
Out of caution while the city’s water consultants study the contamination issues, the city also decided to take a Pudding Hill Aquifer well offline as well, even though that well wasn’t showing any signs of contamination.
While the Pudding Hill Aquifer makes up the largest source of public drinking water, it being offline does not in use does not immediately affect the city’s water needs, said Keith Pratt of Underwood Engineering that consults with the city on its water supply.
Before Dover stopped drawing from the Pudding Hill Aquifer, the city could supply a little over 5 million gallons of drinking water daily.
In addition to the water sources, Dover also has two water tanks it to help manage its supply.
If the supply were to get tight, the city could set up an emergency connection with Somersworth through connecting existing fire hydrants in short order, Pratt said.
Joyal told the council that a similar link was set-up during the Mother Day Flood of 2006 where Dover supplied Somersworth with an emergency connection.
But in the long term, Storer said the Pudding Hill Aquifer is a critical piece to Dover’s drinking water supply.
Hydrogeologist John Brooks of Emery & Garrett Groundwater Investigations, the firm that assists the city with testing the area for pollutants, said that Schnizer has been open about the pollution issues have been working collaboratively with the city on the contamination challenges.