Village of New Washington, OH & McGhee Technical Water Services Inc. – Aquifer exploration

New Washington operated a marginal surface water supply for many years. “Conventional wisdom” is that ground water is unavailable in municipal capacity in the area. Ground Water Science conducted preliminary exploration and worked with the village to test out viable aquifer targets for the village to explore. We identified a sand-and-gravel buried-valley aquifer to the east of the village, however land constraints did not permit exploration of that resource. A high-capacity carbonate aquifer supply was identified some miles to the west, and this was tested, indicating well capacities > 500 gal/min could be expected. Economic constraints prevented developing that wellfield, and the village has since tied into a regional water system. While it did not work out this time, northern Crawford County or the City of Bucyrus could develop a regional ground water supply for a water-poor area ( and we know where that water is).