Changing course

MENOMINEE — The future of a rural northeast Nebraska drinking water system could be flowing in a different direction by the end of 2024, if not sooner.

The Hartington-based Lewis & Clark Natural Resources District held an informational meeting Feb. 6 in Menominee on the Cedar-Knox Rural Water Project it oversees.

Scott Fiedler, Cedar-Knox’s manager, noted in a follow-up interview that two options are being evaluated for the future of the aging rural water system.

Cedar-Knox serves more than 900 rural connections – about 7,000 people – across parts of northern Cedar and Knox counties, 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.

One alternative Cedar-Knox has been focusing on is a location in the Aten area of northwest Cedar County, where a groundwater source and well field would be developed, a new water treatment plant would be constructed in close proximity to the well field and the distribution system would be added on to and upgraded.

Fiedler noted the other option is for the rural water system to connect to and receive drinking water from the City of Yankton, S.D., which he called a “considerably cheaper” alternative to the Aten area plan.

The estimated cost of the work that would take place on the potential project in the Aten area is $38 million, while the predicted price tag to connect to Yankton’s water system is $29 million-$30 million.

“We’re pursuing negotiating a contract with them,” Fiedler said of ongoing discussions between Lewis & Clark NRD and Yankton city officials. “We’re getting a contract finalized. Until we get that finalized, there won’t be any formal decision announced yet.”

Once a contract is finalized, it will go to Cedar-Knox’s advisory committee and then the Lewis & Clark NRD’s board of directors, which will either approve or reject it.

Fiedler noted the $29 million-$30 million estimate would be for the infrastructure needed for the rural water system to connect to the City of Yankton.

“You’re going to have to bore under the river,” Fiedler said, adding there also would be pipes, pumps and tanks installed as part of this potential project. “It’s basically infrastructure on our side. That’d be our cost.”

If Cedar-Knox ultimately connects to Yankton’s water system, the rural water system would not have a new treatment plant built.

Fiedler noted the Lewis & Clark NRD is negotiating right now to receive between 1.5 million and 2 million gallons of water a day from the City of Yankton if Cedar- Knox connects to the municipal water system.

“It’ll be in that ballpark,” Fiedler said. “Their new (water treatment) plant’s got quite a bit of capacity left in it.”

One reason the Lewis & Clark NRD is considering connecting Cedar-Knox to the City of Yankton is funding for the project at the Aten area site has become an issue at the state level.

Fiedler pointed out Gov. Jim Pillen’s recent property tax relief proposal.

“The governor’s working hard to keep his campaign promise of lowering property taxes, so he’s going through every department’s budget and he’s taken some money out to facilitate his property tax cuts,” Fiedler said.

According to a Jan. 30 Nebraska Examiner article, several people spoke during a recent state legislative hearing against Pillen’s plan to sweep $274 million out of state agency reserve funds.

One person was Annette Sudbeck, the general manager of the Lewis & Clark NRD.

“If we don’t get this money, we’re really in dire straits,” she was quoted as saying during the hearing.

According to the Examiner article, the Lewis & Clark NRD is looking at a possible loss of $15.5 million in funds for the replacement of its rural water system, which Sudbeck said would balloon the expected monthly water bill for a family of four to $140 per month.

“At least for now, the grant money that we had has been swept, but we’re working hard with the governor and with the Appropriations Committee to see if we can’t keep that in the (state’s) budget, as it was,” Fiedler said.

Another reason the Lewis & Clark NRD is considering two options for the rural water system’s future is the water quality that each of the alternatives offers.

“It’s pretty hard,” Fiedler said of the water quality at the Aten area site. “Some of the (contaminants) we’ve got to remove in there were going to add some extra costs. Once we got the test wells in and got them pumped, we were able to get water quality back from those.”

The groundwater tests revealed the presence of iron and manganese, two naturally occurring drinking water contaminants that can cause poor taste and odor issues, and be associated with discoloration that leads to staining of fixtures, dishes and laundry, according to Nebraska Extension.

“It wasn’t anything really major,” Fiedler said. “The water’s very hard, which we knew going into it. Of course, there’s some iron and manganese. That’s common.”

The presence of strontium – which occurs naturally in some minerals, including calcium carbonate – also was found in the groundwater tested at the Aten area site. If strontium-containing minerals are present in soils, sediments and rocks, strontium is released into groundwater as those minerals dissolve, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“That looks like it was kind of elevated,” Fiedler said, noting strontium is another drinking water contaminant the Lewis & Clark NRD would want to remove. “That was going to add some extra sort of filter – just adding to the cost of having that extra equipment is going to drive that price of the treatment plant a little higher.”

He noted two test wells were drilled into the ground this past fall at the Aten area site.

“Quantity-wise, it was phenomenal,” Fiedler said. “We had a very, very good pump test. That part went extremely well. There’s a lot of water down in that area.”

The Lewis & Clark NRD had to wait about two months for the results of the water quality samples for the Aten area site.

“We ran a pretty comprehensive round of tests so we could get a good picture of what we have,” Fiedler said as far as water quality and quantity data.

By its March 14 regular meeting, Cedar-Knox’s advisory committee possibly could see a finalized contract from the City of Yankton to connect to the municipal water system.

However, the Lewis & Clark NRD board likely would not make a decision on the finalized contract until April at the earliest.

“Between that and the state’s budget, we’ll see where we sit on funding,” Fiedler said. “Luckily, it’s a short (legislative) session this year, so it’ll be mid-April and we’ll know where we sit.”