Huntington Beach City Council Allows Aquifer Test Well at Park

The City Council on Monday night approved a proposal for drilling a well at Lagenbeck Park to monitor the city’s underground water supply.

The well, which will be 1,500 feet deep, will be used to test water quality and temperature and to ascertain that no contaminants are getting into the water.

Underground water supplies, called aquifers, supply about 70% of the city’s water. The unusually good quality of Huntington Beach’s underground water is literally a prize winner: In a taste test last year, the city’s water was judged best in the state.

Although the city has its own utility that distributes water, the Orange County Water District manages the underground aquifers that supply the well water. The district maintains about 200 county monitoring wells to make periodic checks of water supplies and quantity.

In a letter to the City Council, the district requested an easement, or land-use permission, to install a monitoring well in the park.

The well will take up only a tiny slice of parkland and will be completely enclosed and safe, said James Van Haun, executive assistant to the general manager of the district.

“It will be a very, very small well, and it will be completely secure,” Van Haun said.

In a letter to the city staff, Kevin McGillicuddy, project manager for the district, said the wellhead will be placed below grade in a locked vault. The dimensions of the vault will be 2 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet, and the district will be responsible for its maintenance, he said.