About 55 Attend Rural Water Informational Meeting
By Terry Schwartzenberger
There were about 55 Napoleon area folks who attended a rural water public information meeting on Tues., April 30.
The reason for the meeting with South Central Rural Water District Representatives, Larry Kassian and Larry Kirschmann was to provide the public with information regarding the pending vote of having the city of Napoleon switch its water supply from the current well system to rural water. On the city ballot on June 11 city residents will be asked a yes or no question regarding the change in their water supply.
The water district representatives opened the meeting by offering a bit of history on the service they provide. In 2010 construction started on their plant west of Linton, which pulls and filters water from the Missouri River. In 2012 the city of Linton was connected to the service and the service spread throughout Emmons, McIntosh and Logan County to rural users and the latest addition came in 2018 when Kidder County users were added. Construction is expected to start this year for the city of Ashley to be served by rural water. Currently SCRWD has 1,880 users in the tri-county area. They filter about 2.5 million gallons of water a day.
The SCRWD duo of Kassian and Kirschmann informed the group that if Napoleon decides to have rural water there would need to be some infrastructure upgrades made to their current distribution system. Those upgrades would include additional piping to connect from the current system to the Napoleon water tower as well as a storage tank located near the county line, north of Napoleon. The reason for the storage tank would be to assure that those customers who are currently served by rural water north of Napoleon would continue to have a reliable source of water, since Napoleon would now be using water as well.
The upgrade would supply water from the SCRWD water line east of the Napoleon water tower and city would be charged for the number of gallons that are pumped into the tower ($2.65/1,000). All other infrastructure within the city, water meters and billing would be city of Napoleon’s responsibility, just as it is now.
The cost for the SCRWD system upgrade would qualify for a 75% grant available from the state of North Dakota through the MR&I program. The remaining $1.8 million cost would need to be paid for from city water users. It is hoped to acquire a 2.5% interest loan over a 30 year period to cover the loan. The monthly cost to the city would be $7,150. Once the loan is paid off that cost would be reduced to $3,750 per month for the service. In addition to these costs SCRWD would charge for water usage based on a rate of $2.65/1,000 gallons.
Currently city residents are paying $5/1,000 gallons for water used over the first 3,000 gallons used in a quarter. Included in the current city water fee structure is a base rate of $78/quarter which includes the first 3,000 gallons.
The reason for the vote is that citizens have expressed concern regarding the high amounts of manganese and iron in the current city water supply, which is drawn from the ground and not filtered.
It was pointed out that if a switch is made residents would no longer need water softeners or water softener salt or any type of filtering as this water is all filtered. The question was also raised about supply in the event of a major fire. SCRWD officials said the system would be able to supply sufficient water, however there may be some individual users who would not have water for a short period of time, due to the increased demand. They also said they have connection points in the country where fire departments are able to tap into in the event that they would need additional water.
With some city officials on hand the question was asked what the city may charge for water. . .