701-566-9300Last week saw the Interim Committee known as Water Topics meeting. They heard from many projects such as flood control in various cities, water supply, etc. I have chosen to mention a few of the presentations as they pertain more to you as largely rural residents. Firstly, to sum up the presentation by Eric Volk, the long-time executive director of the North Dakota Rural Water Systems Association, my short notes include the reminder that while last session they were looking for $100 million for projects and were given $52 million. Secondly, Eric discussed that, while some prices have come down, they are still higher than pre-pandemic. Also, that labor shortages are a problem as well as contractors having money available to work in other states because the Federal Government has distributed about $50 billion around the country through the Buy American and Build America programs. Interestingly, he also mentioned that bids have begun to become more competitive. Thirdly, Mr. Volk told the committee that most of the projects are geared to replace aged systems although Rural Water also typically picks up one, two or three small towns each biennium.
Matt Gardner, the director of the League of Cities told lawmakers that of the 355 municipalities in our state, 306 have populations of fewer than one thousand. Because so many of you live in or near those, I thought it worth mentioning. Today, 87 cities have their own water systems while 268 are on Rural Water. Eleven also provide some water for the Rural Water systems.
Water Resource Districts were represented by their leader Jack Dwyer who discussed bill SB2372 from last session which mandated that WRDs work together when they share water that flows from one county to another. The WRDs stated that, while the mandate was a step in the right direction (many WRDs are already organized into joint districts for that purpose), the law needs some tweaking to make the whole system of water management work better and more cooperatively. They will continue to discuss these matters heading into next session.