Tea, SD — The water system that delivers Missouri River Aquifer water to many communities in the tri-state area and hopes to soon serve four more in northwest Iowa received some good federal funding news recently.
Lewis & Clark Regional Water System Executive Director Troy Larson says they have heard from the Bureau of Reclamation about Fiscal 2021 funding.
(as said:) “We received great news from the Bureau of Reclamation that for FY 21, Lewis and Clark will be receiving a total of seventeen point five million dollars. That’s great news considering the administration only proposed $100,000 for us which isn’t even enough to cover our oversight cost for the Bureau of Reclamation. Fortunately, the tri-state delegation was able to secure additional funding for the Rural Water Program and from that additional funding, we ultimately received seventeen point four million on top of the hundred thousand that the administration proposed. That brings our total to 17 point five million. So needless to say seventeen point five million is a lot better than a hundred thousand.”
He says they plan to use the funding in three main places.
(as said:) “First of all, we have a couple of projects where the construction is already underway, and this will help pay for the remaining construction. One project is a 16 million gallon-a-day collector well by Vermilion. The second project already underway is a 2.5 million-gallon water tower at Beresford. So this funding will complete those projects. The third item is where we’re going to construct a meter building at Sioux Center, expand a meter building at Hull, and add pumps to the Beresford Pump Station and that will all be one contract for those items. So that’s really where the main dollars will go and the good news for Sioux Center and Hull is that this is the last funding we need to deliver water to those two communities. We’re currently delivering water to 15 of our 20 members. So this will get water to two more of our members and we expect that to happen by early 2023 assuming all goes well with construction.”
Larson says that based on current funding levels, they hope to have water to Sheldon by late 2023. Sheldon is the end of the line that splits off at Beresford and heads for Sioux Center and Hull. Meanwhile, Sibley is on the Worthington branch, and also based on current funding levels, they hope to have water to Sibley in late 2024, according to Larson.
