City of Luverne declines participation in Rural Water grant

The city of Luverne has declined to participate with Rock County Rural Water on a grant application for a connection on the northwest side of the city.
The nearly $2.9 million project would provide an emergency source of water for the city and would also support construction of a third tower for Rock County Rural Water.
The grant, through the federal Economic Development Administration, requires a 20 percent match from each applicant, which comes to $500,000 each.
That’s more than the city is interested in spending on only a partial connection, according to Luverne Mayor Pat Baustian.
“Since it would be only an emergency cross connection and only a partial supply to them or from them to us, it was decided to instead look at another full connection,” Baustian said.
Instead of connecting on the west side of Luverne through RCRW, the city has indicated a better plan may be to connect directly to the main line of the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System (LCRWS).
That interconnection would be through the water treatment plant south of Luverne.
“This would give us a full redundant connection to LCRWS instead of only emergency connection to Rock County Rural Water of 400 gallons per minute,” he said.
RCRW proposed constructing an 8-inch pipeline west (along Warren Street near the Maplewood Cemetery) to an existing 8-inch RCRW mainline.
The proposal called for Luverne to construct an additional pump station to access water from RCRW.
In October, Rock County Commissioners supported Rural Water’s application for the federal EDA grant, made available through federal CARES Act dollars.
The tower, located west of Luverne, would have improved water pressure to the northern areas of the RCRW system.
Without Luverne’s participation RCRW couldn’t meet the criteria of economic development and the application process was abandoned.