The Windham Town Council last Tuesday unanimously voted to approve spending for continued well-water monitoring in North Windham. The council approved alloting $11,000 for the program that works in conjunction with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS funds another $10,000 in costs and manages the well testing.

This ongoing program started in 1995 when the USGS dug 40 wells to test ground water quality and quantity in the North Windham aquifer. Over the years, many of the wells have been destroyed by vandalism and nearby land development. There are now about 30 wells actively being tested. This network of wells extends from Chaffin Pond and Little Sebago Lake to Route 115 and Sand Bar Road.

The USGS testing takes place between June and September every year. The testing gauges the temperature, pH levels and flow rate of the water as well as nutrients, certain “volatile” organic compounds, petroleum distillate and other solvents consistent with urban impact.

In 1998, a third of the wells tested positive for high levels of MBTE, a gas additive. As a result, a gas station near White’s Bridge Road was closed. It was believed a leaky underground fuel tank had led to the water contamination. In recent years, rising sodium and chloride levels in several wells has also raised concern.

Community Development Director Roger Timmons sees the monitoring as “an insurance policy that lets us know really what’s happening. We can watch it from year to year and we can gauge that and be proactive by looking at it to do other things if necessary. If we didn’t do it and something got out of hand, that would be a worst case scenario.”

The USGS and the council plan to continue monitoring the well water for many years to come. In addition, the council hopes to use the USGS testing data to devise a model for future urban planning and development.