Water quality board to weigh Health Department's private well nitrate testing request

The Teton County Health Department will ask the Water Quality Advisory Board on Friday, Oct. 16, to fund a Private Well Nitrate Testing Service. The board's agenda for the noon meeting at the Public Works Conference Room, 320 S. King Street, lists the request among its funding presentations. A single action item, "Funding Requests Recommendation," follows later in the meeting. The agenda links the proposal only as an outside file. No dollar amount, testing area or eligibility terms appear in the published record. The record shows no earlier action on this request.

The board only advises; it does not spend money. Under the process staff laid out for county commissioners in a March 2 workshop report, sponsors present to the board and answer members' questions. The board then votes on each request and attaches conditions before the recommendation goes to the Board of County Commissioners. In March, commissioners directed the remaining Water Quality Specific Purpose Excise Tax money into set lines, according to the board's March 20 agenda. That included $317,000 for "Teton County Monitoring and Studies" with projects still to be determined. Friday's agenda does not say whether the nitrate request would draw on that line or on another source.