A rural water project that’ll serve parts of three states including Iowa gets a two-million-dollar boost in President Bush’s latest budget. The Lewis and Clark Rural Water Project has been in the making since 1990, and director Pam Bonrud says water in the region is either in shallow aquifers that are susceptible to drought and contamination, or deeper but with very hard water that’s high in minerals. The area’s growing and the coalition formed to build a pipeline for water from the Missouri River. The rural water system will serve parts of southeast South Dakota, southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa including the towns of Sioux Center, Sheldon and Sibley. The two million dollars for the project, is the same amount as last year. States have all committed money, too, and Iowa’s share is 60-thousand dollars. When it’s done, the project will serve more than 200-thousand people.It’s almost 400 miles of pipe, and a pumping and water-treatment station on the South Dakota side. Reservoirs and pumping stations will take the water to 14 counties in all, and Bonrud says the river won’t be affected since the rural water system will take no more than two-percent of its flow.
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