Des Moines, Iowa — The Lewis & Clark Regional Water System is one of the top infrastructure priorities on a list that Iowa’s governor has sent to the President.
President Trump is pushing Congress to pass a spending plan to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure. Trump asked each governor to submit a list of their top five infrastructure priorities.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has put three water-related projects on her list. “Modernization” of the Upper Mississippi River Locks and Dams is at the top.
Number two on Reynolds list is the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System. When complete, it will provide drinking water to 300-thousand residents in northwest Iowa, southwest Minnesota and southeast South Dakota. Lewis & Clark was incorporated in 1990. Ten years later in 2000, the project was authorized. While the member communities and water systems have paid their share, the federal government has been slow to keep up their end of the bargain, according to Lewis & Clark Executive Director Troy Larson. The estimated cost to complete the system is over $580 million. While cities and systems are slowly being connected, the system has yet to reach Sioux Center, Hull, Sheldon, and Sibley in Iowa; Worthington, Minnesota; and Madison, South Dakota. Rock Rapids is the only system in Iowa that’s connected in any way so far.
Number three on Reynolds’ list is the Cedar Rapids Flood Mitigation Project. Reynolds also lists reconstruction of the interchange in the Iowa City area where Interstate 80 and Interstate 380 intersect as number four. The fifth project on the governor’s priority list is the expansion of the terminal at the Des Moines Airport.
