Beverly Hills : Ground Water to Be Tested

The City Council has authorized $171,000 for an engineering firm to design and operate a water well in the median of Burton Way in Beverly Hills.

The well will allow further testing of the city’s ground water aquifers, according to a report by the public works department to the council.

Last April, the city commissioned Boyle Engineering of Newport Beach to study whether tapping into ground water could supplement the city’s water supply. Such a move would free Beverly Hills from its total reliance on the Metropolitan Water District.

Boyle Engineering, in a preliminary study, estimated that eight wells could produce as much as 25% of the city’s water supply. The city used ground water from the 1920s through 1975.

Last November, the Public Works Commission, which is made up of community volunteers, urged that a test well be drilled before the city committed an estimated $10 million to build an eight-well system.

Councilman Allan L. Alexander noted last week that if the test well produces potable water and the system goes forward, “the money (for the trial well) will not have been wasted.”