Ensuring safe drinking water is a complex process.
For modern water sources, there are two general options. The first is for a community to draw from a large surface source, such as a river or lake. But that’s not an option for DeKalb.
“In the summer times, sometimes there’s not even enough water flowing in the Kishwaukee River, so [it's] not really a reliable source of water for DeKalb," said Bryan Faivre, the director of utilities and transportation.
He says DeKalb makes use of nine wells spread across two different aquifers. Six of them are quite deep.