Hot Springs joins Western Dakota Regional Water System as associate member

The Hot Springs City Council voted to join the Western Dakota Regional Water System as an associate member, agreeing to pay the annual associate fee while a regional feasibility study continues. The council approved the motion after a presentation from Jim Jones of A2S engineering and Western Dakota, who said the project is in a conceptual and feasibility phase and could take two decades to complete in its full form.

Associate membership carries an annual fee of $375, council members were told. Officials said that joining now preserves access to member rates and potential water allocations in the future; the membership does not itself establish a contractual right to future water deliveries. Voting membership and other membership classes carry higher fees and governance rights and can be adopted later. The project — a proposed pipeline and treatment infrastructure to bring Missouri River water into the Black Hills region — is being designed at scale and the group is currently compiling demand, cost and alignment data.

Jim Jones told the council the system’s preliminary treatment-plant sizing under discussion is in the tens of millions of gallons per day to ensure supply under extreme drought scenarios; exact costs, per-unit water rates and timing will depend on how many communities join and how much water they reserve. Council members asked whether joining as an associate member would require any immediate capital contributions; Jones said the feasibility study envisions rates covering capital over time and that associate membership itself carries no large capital obligation.

The motion to join as an associate member passed by voice vote (council “Aye”; no opposition recorded on the roll call). Councilors said associate membership preserves options while keeping upfront costs small, and several members said they would revisit membership class decisions later in the process.