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West Central Regional Water District outlines plan for three-county potable water system; April 17 court hearing set
Summary
Presenters from West Central Regional Water District told Crookston officials the district aims to pool supplies across three counties, pursue state funding and pipeline buildout, and hold a final court hearing April 17; presenters warned DNR well‑field concerns and highlighted arsenic-sample findings in Norman County.
Representatives of the West Central Regional Water District presented a multi-county plan to Crookston officials that would deliver potable water via pipeline to small towns, rural residents and municipalities across three counties.
Lucas Spade, who said he is superintendent of utilities for the City of Halsted and a West Central board director, described the district as a three-county effort intended to leverage existing treatment capacity rather than immediately build a new plant. “This water district does not intend to build a water plant at this point,” he said, explaining the model of purchasing water from existing suppliers and extending pipelines in phases.
Spade and the project engineer (AE2S) outlined an initial Phase 1 corridor along Highway 75 and described a master-plan buildout across roughly 16 phases. The presenters estimated an initial planning model of roughly 800–900 million gallons per year for municipal and rural hookups, and a longer-term regional projection based on growth assumptions approaching 1.6 billion gallons over 25 years. By comparison, Crookston’s current consumption was cited as about 310–350 million gallons per year.
Council members pressed presenters about source water and drought contingencies. Presenters said Crookston’s plant is operating at about a quarter of capacity but flagged Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) concerns about well‑field strength; the city is undertaking a phase‑two water study that will inform negotiations. Presenters also cited engineering data showing about 43% of sampled Norman County private wells in the dataset exceeded arsenic thresholds, stressing that the figure reflected sampled wells rather than all wells.
Spade said West Central is legally formed by resolution and has filed a petition in Clay County District Court; a final hearing is scheduled for April 17. The district will send mail notices to affected property owners (about 19,500 mailers in Crookston’s packet) and intends to make a court presentation with Zoom access for the public. Funding discussed included county formation funds, a $2.1 million USDA grant/loan package used in early phases, Polk County ARPA funds for upsizing, and allocated federal amounts secured with the help of Senator Klobuchar; presenters said they were also pursuing EPA funding for design and infrastructure work.
Presenters invited council follow-up and said they would provide documents and respond to technical questions as Crookston’s phase‑two study becomes available.
