Driving the news: The Urbandale Water Utility is working on plans for an Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) well in western Urbandale near the current 170th Street water tower—an infrastructure play to lock in safe, reliable drinking water for decades.
Why it matters: ASR wells store treated water underground during low-demand months, then pulls it back when it’s hot, dry, or demand spikes.
- How ASR wells work (fast): Treat water → inject into aquifer → store safely → recover on demand. The net effect is a strategic “water battery” beneath our feet.
Well drilling will run as a continuous operation to meet technical requirements and shorten the active drilling window.
- Expect a controlled hum at the site, not a neighborhood nuisance. Sound-attenuation barriers and other measures will be deployed specifically to minimize any impacts on neighborhoods.
- With sound walls up, the drilling hum would register well below what you’d hear courtside during a neighborhood pickleball game.
Public input: A public hearing on the proposed noise mitigation plan was held on Wednesday, October 8. The City Council also recently discussed the well at a meeting in August.
- What we’re watching: Final design details will take about a year to complete (diameter, target aquifer, injection/recovery rates) and construction could likely begin in 2027.
Bottom line: This ASR well is a long-horizon investment—quietly building a margin of safety into Urbandale’s water system so households and businesses can count on clean, dependable water in dry spells, growth years, and everything in between.