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Liberty Center

Overview

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.

LocationDateSite E. coli level /100mLSafe Level of E. coli / 100 mL for swimmingSafe Level of E. coli / 100 mL for drinking water
Storm inlet at 300 W.
and Walnut
July 8, 2020241,960 PPM235 PPM0 PPM
Storm inlet at East StreetJuly 8, 202086,640 PPM235 PPM0 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