By Carleen Wild
Moody County Enterprise
If you have driven through the Trent area lately, you’ve likely noticed just how close the Shared Resources water project is getting toward completion.
The treatment plant is enclosed, grading and landscaping work is underway, and a new water tower has been installed east of Trent.
The site is remote, just north of the Minnehaha County line, and it may seem somewhat nondescript. But the new plant is intended to serve a much broader region and purpose — one expected to affect life and growth in eastern South Dakota for generations.
The partnership between Big Sioux Community Water System and Minnehaha Community Water Corp. is not new. We have followed the collaborative project for several years, with initial planning beginning in 2021 and groundwork getting underway in May 2024.
The $170 million investment is expected to provide the two systems with an additional 8 million gallons of water per day beginning this fall.
That additional water, many believe, will change what is possible.
The project includes six new wells, an $80 million treatment plant, a 1.5 million-gallon water tower and a 4 million-gallon ground-level storage tank. It is being financed through $49 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act grants and $121 million in low-interest loans from South Dakota’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.
Why it is needed — Minnehaha Community Water was formed by farmers and landowners in the 1970s to provide cleaner, more reliable water to rural residents who had depended on individual wells.
The system began with about 1,200 customers. It now serves more than 5,500 customers in seven communities, primarily north of Sioux Falls.
Minnehaha draws about 7 million gallons per day from the Big Sioux River Aquifer and receives another 2 million gallons from the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System. Its maximum daily capacity is about 9.2 million gallons, a level it sometimes reaches during spring planting or extreme summer heat.
Its water rights and treatment capacity have effectively been maxed out, limiting the system’s ability to serve large new customers.
Scott Buss, executive director of Minnehaha Community Water, said the system has had to turn away proposed projects valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Those included the Agropur cheese plant that eventually opened in Lake Norden, along with proposed hog farms and dairy expansions. The $1.5 billion Gevo corn-based jet fuel plant, the $500 million Wholestone Farms hog processing plant and a data center also considered the Dell Rapids area at different points.
“All the water rights are spoken for between Dell Rapids and Sioux Falls, so there was no more water to be had in Minnehaha County,” Buss told South Dakota News Watch.
“With all the (residential) development that was coming in, we realized that our well capacity and our treatment capacity was limiting our ability to take on new high water-use customers.”
Big Sioux Community Water, based in Egan, has its own history and a different challenge.
The system currently produces up to 2 million gallons per day for about 2,400 customers in Moody and Lake counties, along with portions of Brookings County and western Minnesota.
Big Sioux has not yet had to turn away major projects and still has room within its water rights, making the two systems natural partners. Its leaders, however, see growth coming and want to add capacity before facing the same limitations as Minnehaha.
BSCWS serves several large dairies and provides water to the expanding Dakota Ethanol plant in Wentworth. Residential development is also increasing, particularly around Lake Madison, where projects under consideration could eventually add 500 homes and a nine-hole golf course.
Local growers are also using more water as they apply chemicals and nutrients with greater precision.
“This is our first expansion,” Big Sioux Director Jodi Johanson said.
“We’re looking forward and we’re trying to find the solution before we face a problem.”
Minnehaha will receive an additional 5 million gallons per day and cover 65% of the project’s loan costs. Big Sioux will receive 3 million gallons and cover 35%.
For those of us living here, that additional capacity could mean more homes, expanding businesses, greater support for agriculture and potentially new employers.
It will also allow a larger conversation about what kind of growth our communities actually want.
Not everyone welcomes large-scale development. Others see it as essential to creating jobs, expanding the tax base and keeping rural communities strong. With water no longer the immediate barrier it has been, those decisions can be based more on what residents and local leaders believe is best.
“I think it will be a great thing for our county and hopefully enable us to bring in more bigger businesses as well as more homes,” Moody County Zoning Administrator Alicia Deschepper said.
Shared Resources will not be the final answer. Both systems are already looking toward projects that could bring additional Missouri River water into eastern South Dakota.
Minnehaha has applied for more water from Lewis & Clark and the proposed Dakota Mainstem Regional Water System. Big Sioux has also signed on with Dakota Mainstem, even though it could take 20 to 40 years before that water begins flowing.
This story includes reporting from Bart Pfankuch of South Dakota News Watch, an independent nonprofit news organization. Read more at sdnewswatch.org.