Liberty Center
Located South West of Bluffton, the town of Liberty Center is an unincorporated rural member of Wells County. The town of Liberty Center does not have sanitary sewer infrastructure; waste from homes and businesses is discharged into various onsite systems and holding tanks where it leaks into stormwater systems, ditches and even the drinking water table.
As of July 2020, harmful bacteria levels in Liberty Center’s drainage systems were between 90 and 11,000 times the accepted healthy level. Due to the need for adequate wastewater removal in Liberty Center, the WCRSD has focused on the extension of sanitary sewer service to the town as a top priority project area in the 2020/2021 projects round.
Water Quality Testing in Liberty Center
The Wells County Health Department took water samples in Liberty Center on July 8th, 2020. Water quality tests from these samples read extremely high levels of E. coli indicating leakage of human waste from failed septic tanks into the surrounding water table. A summary of results from those tests are shown in the table below.
| Location | Date | Site E. coli level /100mL | Safe Level of E. coli / 100 mL for swimming | Safe Level of E. coli / 100 mL for drinking water |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Storm inlet at 300 W. and Walnut | July 8, 2020 | 241,960 PPM | 235 PPM | 0 PPM |
| Storm inlet at East Street | July 8, 2020 | 86,640 PPM | 235 PPM | 0 PPM |
For more information about water quality test results in Liberty Center, please contact the Septic Environmental Health Specialist at the Wells County Health Department.
(260) 824-6491