LEBANON — City Council members appear to be leaning toward buying land atop the Shaker Creek Aquifer for well fields and new industry — despite neighboring communities' concerns.

        The aquifer's water level has dropped 27 feet in three decades in the area Lebanon is considering, largely be cause Mason and other communities have drawn too much water from it.

        Mason and Turtlecreek Township are worried Lebanon could put even more strain on the dwindling water supply, but that concern did not impress Lebanon council members at a work session Wednesday.

        The water is “for everybody but Lebanon, is the way it sounds,” Ben Cole said.

        Mark Flick and Mayor James Mills also voiced support for buying the land if test results show enough water can be pumped from it.

        “When we're out of water, we're out,” Mr. Flick said. “You can't make water.”

        Only Amy Brewer appeared to oppose the project.
       

Supply survey
        Council could vote Feb. 13 on whether to buy the 130 acres between Ohio 741 and U.S. 42 in Turtlecreek Township. The cost: $1.5 million.

        A survey that is just starting should tell Lebanon in six months how long its current water supply will last, city water chief John Habig said Thursday. In the meantime, he said, officials are trying to make sure they don't depend solely on one source.

        Lebanon gets most of its water from wells near Ohio 63. It's a small finger of the aquifer that's downstream from the new site, Mr. Buffenbarger said.

        “They are going to need water, there's no question about it,” he said. But based on aquifer maps, he doubts the city will find it at the new site.

        The Ohio 741 site and one other appear to be the only potential well locations remaining near Lebanon, City Manager James Patrick said.

        Mr. Buffenbarger suggested the city consider Caesar Creek Reservoir.

        Mason, which cut its water withdrawal in half after a state report blamed the city for the aquifer's depletion, is concerned about more users tapping into the same area.
       

Sharing urged
        Lebanon, Mason and other users — such as Monroe and the Lebanon Correctional Institution — should get together to discuss how to share the water “instead of just grabbing it,” Mason Councilman Jim Fox said Thursday.

        “That aquifer can only support so many wells, and I think it would be a little irresponsible for a newcomer to come in and say what's fair,” Mr. Fox said.

        Turtlecreek residents also are concerned about the city's plan to fill in most of the 130 acres — which is in a floodplain — so that it could be sold for industrial use.

        “The floodplain was God's way of saying, "Let the water gather so it can sink into the ground,'” Mr. Buffenbarger said. That's how the aquifer recharges, and recharging has slowed because of development elsewhere, he said.

        “If you fill it downstream, you flood the land upstream,” he added.

        Also, the city would be limited in the types of industries that could use the land because of the risk of polluting the aquifer, Planning Director Marty Kohler conceded.

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