SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELOS AM) - The Lewis and Clark Regional Water System made significant headway over the winter.
Executive Director Troy Larson says the advances will deliver water to Madison.
Larson says two segments of pipeline were finished including one five miles long near Sioux Falls and another five mile stretch near Madison. He says that infrastructure, along with infrastructure from Minnehaha Community Water and Big Sioux Community Water, will be utilized in what is called "wheel water to Madison."
Larson says it's a type of bucket brigade to get water to Madison. He says Lewis and Clark will sell water to Minnehaha Community Water and they will in turn sell water to Big Sioux Community who sell water to Madison.
He says the plan remains to build a pipeline to Madison down the road. He says the wheeling plan is meant to supply Madison with water for up to 20 years. But in between Lewis and Clark still needs to finish 32 miles of pipeline.
By providing water to Madison through the wheeling plan, it means the system can wait for federal funding to come toward the end of the project to construct the pipeline. Larson says otherwise L & C would have needed roughly another $17 million from the state of South Dakota to fund the construction in advance of the the federal funding.
Larson says there's another busy construction season planned for this summer, funded mostly by loans from the states they serve: South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.
Lewis and Clark delivers water from wells near Vermillion to it's members. The project is about 70% complete.