A new ordinance in Green Oak Township will protect water resources in the municipality by establishing an overlay district.

Overlay districts include special requirements and restrictions that are applied to land uses and activities to eliminate or minimize contamination of the aquifers supplying the township’s municipal water wells. The Wellhead Protection Overlay District is a mapped zoning district that imposes a set of requirements in addition to those of the underlying zoning district.

The township’s Board of Trustees on Wednesday adopted an ordinance that would established the overlay district to regulate the permitted land uses within the wellhead protection area, which is the surface and subsurface area surrounding a public water supply well or wellfield.

Supervisor Mark St. Charles previously told WHMI the ordinance will help preserve the township’s groundwater resources, especially during a time when officials are beginning to feel the pressures of local development and the effect it could have on surface and groundwater resources in the municipality. St. Charles adds some of the land uses that will be prohibited in the wellhead protection area are those related to heavy industrial uses or hazardous chemicals.

The ordinance will be published Monday and is effective immediately. (DK)