By Sara Strong
Rock County Rural Water is standing by its recommendation to pull out of the Lewis and Clark Rural Water Project.
Since its vote a month ago, federal funding of $7 million came through, but Rural Water still thinks its users will be fine on their own.
Lewis and Clark representative Red Arndt, who is also the Utilities Coordinator for the city of Luverne, spoke to the Board of Commissioners Tuesday. The Board wanted to hear Lewis and Clark’s perspective before dropping out of the project.
The Rural Water Board acts as an advising body to the county Board of Commissioners.
Lewis and Clark isn’t concerned about the 300,000 allotment Rock County Rural Water signed up to use because other users would likely vie for the chance to use its portion. What the system is concerned about is political effects of a member dropping off.
Commissioner Ron Boyenga also serves on the Rural Water Board. He said "We support the project totally," even though it doesn’t want to be a member anymore.
Rock County Attorney Don Klosterbuer is still looking into the details, whether Rural Water can sell its share of allocated water or whether it can even break the contract. The county will act on the matter after getting more information.
"This is really a system of the future," Arndt said. "It isn’t something we can just look at what we’re spending now. … I can’t put a dollar amount on what reliability is worth; I can’t answer that."
Lewis and Clark Rural Water System will provide an alternative, backup water supply from the Missouri River to 23 towns and water systems in South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.
In an area plagued with drought and shallow aquifers prone to contamination, many have seen Lewis and Clark as a salvation. Its environmental impacts are expected to be minimal on the Missouri River and its surrounding area. Arndt said the river would only lose a half inch of water a year as the result of Lewis and Clark, so there’s not much opposition.
Rural Water’s opposition comes mostly from the pocketbook, but also because it thought the project would be finished by now. Now it’s expected to be done by 2012 or 2014.
When it signed up, Rural Water was expected to pay $303,018; in 2001 it was estimated at $450,741.
Rural Water’s portion of the agreement for 2003 was $20,000 for 300,000 gallon allotment. The water would serve as a backup supply.
Rural Water signed up for Lewis and Clark in 1993, and since then, has almost doubled its number of wells and has the capacity to pump three times its average use.
Contamination of the shallow wells is always an issue in this area. Rural Water Manager Dan Cook said well field protection areas are helping to avoid nitrate contamination. Along with the increased number of wells, the wells are spread out, contained in different watershed areas.
Rural Water sees all of this as a sign it can handle itself. In fact, it is looking into selling some of its surplus water to Lincoln-Pipestone Rural Water System.
