U.S. Water News Online
PIERRE, S.D. -- The Lewis & Clark Water Project is so important to future growth in eastern South Dakota that the state must position itself to finance the pipeline with bonds if federal funds disappear, a Sioux Falls lawmaker said.
Republican Rep. Ron Williamson persuaded the House State Affairs Committee to endorse his bill that would create a mechanism to authorize up to $500 million in revenue bonds for the project, which would pipe water from the Missouri River to communities and farms in eastern South Dakota, northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota.
The bill passed on a 10-3 vote and goes to the House floor for debate.
``It's not something that's going to happen tomorrow, but it is an alternative for financing,'' Williamson said of the funding plan. ``By 2012, we have to have this project done.''
That's a projected date at which the Sioux Falls area will have grown beyond the ability of existing water supplies to meet the need.
``We will be unable to continue to expand,'' Sen. Dick Kelly, R-Sioux Falls, told the House panel. ``We won't run out of water, but our ability to expand and continue to grow will, if not come to a stop, be slowed.''
Legislators questioned if the bill would let the federal government off the hook for money.
``Once we start to fund federal water projects ourselves, they cease to be a priority for the federal government,'' said Rep. Mel Olson, D-Mitchell.
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