EPHRATA - Grant County is moving forward with a plan to monitor the septic systems at the fairgrounds.

The county is requesting bids for a company to drill three monitoring wells at the fairgrounds, as well as looking for an engineer to detail where the septic systems are located.

The state-approved plan to monitor and permit the large on-site septic systems at the fairgrounds calls for three wells. One will be placed "upstream" while two are planned for "downstream" of one of the most used septic systems, according to the plan.

The plan called for having testing start by mid-April, but now Fairgrounds Manager Jerry Gingrich is hoping to have the wells open by mid-July.

"We'd like to do the monitoring during fair," he said. "We want to have it up and running and doing our testing by mid-July, but, definitely, we want to have it up and running prior to fair."

GSI Water Solutions, the company contracted to develop the plan, will train fairgrounds staff on how to take samples from the well, Gingrich said. The samples will be sent to a laboratory for testing.

The samples are going to be tested for nitrogen, nitrate, ammonia and orthophosphate, according to the plan. The plan calls for testing for about two years, with the bulk of tests following the 2012 Grant County Fair.

Gingrich didn't have an estimate on the cost of the wells, but he hoped they didn't cost too much, he said.

"It's not anything more than a well," he said "The challenge is drilling through the rocks and finding the aquifer ... Most people who come here won't even see them. It will be inconspicuous to the average fair-goer."

Commissioner Cindy Carter said the wells will be paid for from the same bond money the new septic systems were installed with. The $12 million bond was used to construct the five new systems, along with the 4-H Building, the second pavilion and change the path of Airway Drive. About $583,000 remains in the bond account.

"It will be good to get it moving," she said. "It's just been a very slow, arduous process."

Along with the monitoring wells, the county plans to hire an engineer to find all of the septic systems at the fairgrounds, according to county records. The engineers will conduct an inspection and evaluation of the fairgrounds septic systems and drain field, come up with an updated inventory, provide system drawings, and evaluate the systems.

"We want to identify where all of the septic systems are, so we can more accurately track them. Not only to monitor them, but to make sure we're taking care of them and being a good steward of the county," Gingrich said.