Trent area residents seek clarity on new water pipeline access

As work continues on a new Shared Water Resources plant just outside of Trent, neighbors gathered this past week with one main question why hadnt conditional use permits already been secured for the pipeline that will carry water from the plant to its final destinations?
Residents and officials from nearby townships filled the County Commission chambers this past Tuesday. Many came to listen in on the hearing, ask questions of Commissioners and project partners, and better understand whether the pipeline could cross private property without requiring landowners to sign easements especially if the pipe ends up outside of public right-of-way.
It looked like there was a gap in the original drawing between the right-of-way and where the easement was, said nearby neighbor Tim Huss.
Our concern was they dont have access to the easement, they would have to cross private property to get to their easement we also had questions on air release valves and it sounds like theyre going to be at the line of the right-of-way or in the right-of-way. Most of our concerns have been cleaned up if everything goes as planned, and thats basically why were here, to see if that got smoothed over.
Officials with Shared Resources, Inc. a collaboration between Big Sioux Rural Water and Minnehaha Community Water Corporation, along with the projects engineering firm, said they plan to meet with neighbors throughout the duration of the project. Their goal: to keep residents informed of progress and answer questions as they arise.
In the meantime, project leaders worked to reassure attendees that no legal work is being ignored or rushed through.
This is the first type of project like this where weve done this, where we have actually paid for easements and gone through this process where we dont acquire our own easements and we hire a third party to do it. So, its all new to us too in terms of how this third party action takes place, so hes out talking to the landowners, the landowners talk to him, he has to talk to our engineering firm, the engineering firm has to talk to us, its kind of a staggered process so its new for us too. It hasnt been seamless by any means but its not typical how we obtain easements. And weve never paid for easements.
After nearly an hour of discussion, a motion was made to table any decision on the permitsincluding those for the reservoir, pump station, water tower, and system of treated pipelinesuntil the Commissions regular meeting in early May.
This is a public utility, were not fighting it, people need water, its a whole different thing than the CO2 pipeline. From a permit standpoint, were on board with providing water, weve just got to figure out the best way to do it, said Mike Schmidt.
Once complete, the plant will include an 8.0 MGD (million gallons per day) groundwater treatment facility, a well field, one ground storage reservoir, one elevated storage reservoir, one booster pump station, and nearly 15 miles of treated water pipeline.
More information on the project is available at Big Sioux Community Water Systems website: bigsiouxcws.com.