Batavia's Quarry Beach proposals not ready

A plan to fix the leak at Harold Hall Quarry Beach before next summer's season has hit a slight bump.

The Batavia Park District has solicited proposals from three consultants to analyze how the quarry is losing water, but one written proposal was not completed before the park board's Tuesday night meeting.

The board is expected to choose one of the firms at its Dec. 21 meeting.

“No matter how these firms tend to attack the problem, we definitely feel that no matter what we should at least invest in the exploratory work to find out what is underground, and the magnitude of what we are dealing with,” said Jim Eby, the district's planning and development director.

The district estimates that the Quarry loses an average of 250,000 gallons a day during the swim season. It suspects the water is leaking out through the fractured limestone wall and into the nearby Fox River. It says the loss started when a dam was removed on the south end of Batavia several years ago, causing the river's water level to drop. Its level is now lower than that of the Quarry.

The water loss is blamed for the cool water temperatures that swimmers have complained about. About one-quarter of the Quarry water is replaced each day, coming out of the Quarry's well at 58 degrees.

The chosen firm will drill into the Quarry's basin and its perimeter to study water flow and detention, and then present solutions to fix the leakage problem.

Eby said cold winter weather should not affect the drilling study, since drilling will be into rock, not soil. The testing and analysis should be done before the Quarry opens in June.

If the solution is sealing the leaks in the perimeter, that work could probably be done while the Quarry is operating, according to park board President Patrick Callahan.