Pictured are members of the Mayville Village Board. P-J poto by Gregory Bacon

MAYVILLE – After being unsuccessful in seeking a new water source, village officials have decided to go in a different direction.

During the Mayville Village Board meeting, the board passed a resolution to install a new filtering system on one of its currently unused wells. “The Village Board of Trustees has exhausted its search for a new water source in proximity to the Village of Mayville and has determined to go forward with the design and engineering for an additional GAC Filtration Building to treat well #3,” the resolution reads.

The village has a Granular Activated Carbon water filtration system on one of its wells. It was installed after traces of perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) were discovered in the water system back in 2020. At that time, the county Health Department issued a “Do Not Drink” order.

It was later discovered that PFNA were in all three of the village’s wells. A fourth well that was not infected and was not being used was put on line and then the filtration system was added to one of its infected wells.

It is believed the wells became infected from firefighting foam that was used during a training exercise at the former Mayville High School.

Even though the village has two working wells, health officials still want Mayville to have another water source, because neither well can support the village independently should one well go down.

Last summer, the village began exploring to drill a new well but was unsuccessful.

“We ran out of choices,” Mayor Rick Syper said after this week’s board meeting.

Because of this, Syper said they are going to build a second filtration system. Between the two wells with filtration systems, and the one well that is uncontaminated, this should take care of the supply issue for Mayville.

Once that is done, Syper said they will then work on replacing older water lines. He noted that the money they’re using for this is from the $2 million federal grant they received when Tom Reed was the congressman.

No timeline was announced as to how long it would take for the new GAC filtration building to be up and running, only that the next step is the design and engineering of a new filtration system and building.