Cedar-Knox Rural Water’s proposed project is now flowing in new direction

CROFTON – A proposed rural drinking water project that would affect parts of northern Cedar and Knox counties is flowing in a new direction.

The Lewis & Clark Natural Resources District, which oversees the Cedar-Knox Rural Water Project, held an informational open house on May 24 at the Crofton City Auditorium about the proposed project.

The NRD’s board of directors decided on May 18 to shift the focus away from a Dolphin Township site south of Crofton in eastern Knox County as the primary location for a new groundwater source development.

Instead, Cedar-Knox will focus on a location in the Aten area of northwest Cedar County for the development of a groundwater source and well field, construction of a new water treatment plant in close proximity to the well field and additions and upgrades to the distribution system.

Cedar-Knox is a public drinking water system that serves more than 900 rural connections – about 7,000 people – including several sanitary improvement districts, recreational areas and businesses along Lewis and Clark Lake and the Missouri River, along with the communities of Crofton, Fordyce, St. Helena and Obert.

Scott Fiedler, who has been the manager of the rural water project for nearly five years, noted the plan is for test holes to be drilled at the Aten site this summer to determine the quality of the groundwater at the location and what kind of treatment it would require.

Before the drilling of test holes can start, a plan for that work at the Aten site has to be developed.

“A lot goes into it,” Fiedler said. “Some of the distribution plan is going to have to be reworked, too, because we’ll be pushing uphill a little more.”

Both the Aten and Dolphin Township sites were considered for the new groundwater source development for the proposed project.

“They both had their positives and negatives,” Fiedler said. “Down at the Dolphin site, one of the landowners decided not to pursue the drilling on his property anymore.”

That was one reason why Cedar-Knox decided to focus on the Aten site, which is located near the Missouri River.

“It’s a good site, a very good site,” Fiedler said. “It has a very good volume of water. It’s basically fed by the river.”

However, quality issues with the groundwater at the Aten site is one reason why the Dolphin Township location was considered first for the proposed project, but the Aten site has access to a larger volume of water.

“You’ve got three things – iron and manganese are basically everywhere and then there are pockets, too, with some nitrates that are a little elevated,” Fiedler said of the Aten site’s groundwater quality issues. “We could have to treat for all three of them.”

Cedar-Knox’s new water treatment plant would be designed to remove hardness, total dissolved solids, iron and manganese, and have the ability to include nitrate removal if necessary.

Fiedler reiterated the Aten location seems promising and noted the site’s landowner the rural water project is working with “is willing to cooperate” and help out in any way.

“Depending on the water quality, if something would be so astronomical that it’s just not feasible to try to treat it,” Fiedler said, Cedar-Knox likely would consider a different location.

However, he expressed confidence that the rural water project has found the site for its new water treatment plant.

The proposed project would not only include the new facility, but the development of a well field as well as distribution system improvements, as required for the Nebraska Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund through the state Department of Environment and Energy and other funding agencies.

On March 8, people packed the Hartington VFW Club to attend a public hearing that was held to provide updates on the proposed project and to meet requirements to secure funding for it through the State Revolving Loan Fund.

Several people spoke out against the proposed project during the public hearing, but that was when Cedar-Knox was focused on the Dolphin Township site.

The wave of opposition has since subsided for the most part with the current focus on the Aten location.

Fiedler noted the more recent open house in Crofton was a much calmer event than the public hearing.

“It’s kind of a nice little format, where you can have a good conversation and point out some stuff one-on-one,” Fiedler said of the open house. “It’s actually worked quite well.”

A preliminary engineering report for the proposed project was prepared in response to an administrative order – issued by the state Department of Environment and Energy – due to encroaching sediment and flood impacts on the surface water intake, limited production capacity of Cedar-Knox’s current water treatment plant and limited capacity of distribution components.

The rural water project has been under the administrative order for exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Maximum Contaminant Level for a disinfection byproduct, total trihalomethane (TTHM), that Cedar-Knox is required to resolve.

“Treating surface water often results in the production of TTHM, as it occurs when chlorine reacts with natural organics in the water,” Fiedler said in a previous interview.

The rural water project has been using treated surface water from the Devils Nest area – located along the Missouri River in northeast Knox County – to provide drinking water since 1981.

Cedar-Knox has been looking to identify an alternative water source to address the administrative order and to secure a long-term sustainable source of suitable water.

The rural water project also is planning necessary upgrades to the more than 40-year-old distribution system, including upsizing pipes, replacing storage tanks and building a new water treatment plant.

Cedar-Knox’s advisory committee unanimously approved implementing the proposed project in December 2021 to address these issues.

The rural water project’s current water treatment plant has been expanded several times, is very near capacity and will require millions of dollars of improvements if it were to remain in use.

“The goal for the Cedar-Knox Rural Water Project is to develop a groundwater well field; replace the undersized, outdated treatment plant in a more accessible area; and replace portions of the distribution system that are undersized,” Fiedler said.

“The well field will not only eliminate the concerns of sediment overtaking the intake structure, but also reduce organics in the water to drastically lower disinfection byproducts and bring the project back into compliance with EPA requirements,” he said.