In its quest for water to serve the future needs of the computer chip manufacturing complex Intel is building in western Licking County, the city of New Albany is seeking a permit from Licking County to drill a test water well just west of Granville.
New Albany also plans to ask for a permit to drill a test well in the same aquifer a few miles to the north, near Alexandria, on land owned by Colleen Geiger, the same site where Shelly Materials wants to build and operate concrete- and asphalt-mixing plants.
Officials in Granville village and township remain alarmed by the potential daily extraction of millions of gallons of water from — and potential contamination of — the aquifer, the same underground water supply that provides drinking water to Granville and Alexandria, which buys potable water from Granville.
New Albany sent a letter last week to Licking County Planning Manager Brad Mercer, asking for a permit to drill a well on part of the 106 acres of farmland that Granville Township Trustee Dan VanNess sold to The New Albany Co. late last year. The letter says engineers working for the city want to conduct a test over 72 hours, drawing a total of 11 million gallons or more of water out of the ground and into Raccoon Creek.