Kidston Fills In The Blanks

The aquifer story continues. Last night in Montpelier before the council, Ed Kidston, president and owner of Artesian of Pioneer, spoke publicly about his plans, data and reasoning behind a proposed project to sell water to communities outside the aquifer. Kidston has long assured the council the project would cause no harm to residents of Williams County. With Kidston was Todd Feenstra, who has made several studies of the water source and is considered an expert on the aquifer. Both said there are well monitoring records in the region that shows there is plenty of water, plus with the way the water is renewed in the aquifer, water supplies should never be a problem, even in drought years. Both say those records go back decades in some cases. Both added though testing is still vital before the next stage of the plan can begin. That will involve both pumping out some water to check water level changes as well as some other drilling in other regions to see if there are any adverse changes. Kidston says other areas in the region could use the water…it should generate a million dollars in construction payroll taxes building the project…and it could be the largest public investment in the county, bringing in more revenues than Menard’s.