Over the past two years, the Red River Valley Water Supply Project (RRVWSP) has made great strides. Project organizers hope the project’s momentum continues into the upcoming biennium. “It’s clear that waiting for a drought to occur before taking action would result in devastating consequences to the region and state. We need to keep the RRVWSP moving forward in a timely manner to ensure a reliable water supply for our future and for multiple generations to come,” says Duane DeKrey, Garrison Diversion Conservancy District (Garrison Diversion) General Manager.
Laying the Ground Work
Throughout 2016, staff and board members from the Garrison Diversion and the Lake Agassiz Water Authority (LAWA) held informational meetings with communities and water districts in central and eastern North Dakota. The meetings resulted in 35 cities and water districts nominating for 159.23 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water from the RRVWSP.
“In addition to the outstanding number of commitments to the project that we’ve secured, we’ve also completed a lot of engineering work during this biennium,” says DeKrey. The accomplishments include the completion of a Missouri River intake investigation, evaluation of water treatment plant options, pipeline horizontal alignment, and completion of conceptual design of a horizontal collector well / conventional intake structure as well as hydraulics and structures.
Continuing to Plan
“We’ve created a project implementation plan and initial financial models, and discharged the system’s conceptual design. Before the end of June 2017, we will complete the Missouri River intake permit level design, get the pipeline to 20 percent design completion, and discharge the structure preliminary design,” says DeKrey. “With further investment from the State and local sources, we will be able to continue along this track and make significant progress in the next two years as well.”