$17.5M APPROVED for FY21

Lewis & Clark RWS was notified by the Bureau of Reclamation that its total funding for FY21 is $17.5M. This includes $17.4M of the additional $114.708M Congress approved for Reclamation’s Rural Water Program in the FY21 Budget, as well as the $100,000 proposed by the administration.

“This is really good news and we are very pleased. A big thank you to the tristate congressional delegation for their hard work to secure the additional funding. Their continued strong bipartisan support and leadership is greatly appreciated. Our thanks as well to the Bureau of Reclamation. They continue to be outstanding partners,” said Executive Director Troy Larson.

In FY20 Lewis & Clark received $18M. “Overall funding for the Rural Water Program in FY21 is down $1.5M compared to FY20, so a small haircut was expected,” said Larson.

The funding will be used to complete construction already underway on a 16 million gallons per day collector well near Vermillion and a 2.5 million gallon water tower at Beresford. In addition, a contract will be awarded later this year that includes three items — construction of the Sioux Center meter building, expansion of the Hull meter building and adding pumps to the Beresford pump station. “When construction of all of the above mentioned projects is complete, which is expected no later than the spring of 2023, we will begin delivering long-awaited water to Sioux Center and Hull,” said Larson.

Including the construction that will be completed with the FY21 federal funding, this will put Lewis & Clark at being approximately 86 percent complete.