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SCWD supplies tasty water

According to the “Better Health Channel” Web site, the human body is made up of 55 to 75 percent water. Water forms the basis of blood, digestive juices, urine and perspiration, and it is contained in lean muscle, fat and bones.

The Web site recommends that people consume six to eight glasses (at least 150 milliliters each) of water each day. Can you imagine buying a six-pack of bottled water each day to meet these suggested guidelines? If good drinking water was only available in fancy plastic bottles, then we’d all likely go broke.

Fortunately, most people don’t have to drink bottled water unless they want to. Thousands of rural residents in the counties of Burleigh, Kidder and Emmons have immediate access to chemical-free, tasteless and odorless water right out of their kitchen taps.

If you live in Capital Electric Cooperative’s service territory,

The SCWD office moved to 10700 Highway 1804 N. at the end of January.

Doug Neibauer, executive director of SCWD, says it made “good sense” to move the office to the site of the water treatment plant, next to the Missouri River.

The newly redesigned facility will use advanced technology to pre-filter river water before it arrives at the plant for treatment, in order to eliminate the smell and taste of chemicals. Neibauer says not only does the water purification system meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s requirements, but it meets the members’ expectations.

Wells: an unattractive alternative

Back when the population surrounding Bismarck was sparse and other utilities chose not to serve the areas because they couldn’t make a profit, cooperatives like Capital Electric formed to provide necessary services. Along with electricity, people needed cleaner water. Before the 1980s, rural residents commonly dug wells to access water, which contained nasty minerals such as iron or manganese. The brown or black water stained laundry and stifled appetites.

To get a better quality of water, farmers formed the Burleigh Water Users Cooperative (BWUC) in 1972. They started raising money and making plans to serve the first 700 households. In 1981, BWUC constructed a water treatment plant that exists in part today at the new office location. The plant operated from 1981 to 1996, until it ran out of capacity to serve a growing membership. To meet additional needs, BWUC began purchasing water from the city of Bismarck.

Because the co-op relied on federal loans to support the operation, members wanted to become a water district for financial and economic reasons. In 2002, members voted at the annual meeting to change the name from Burleigh Water Users Cooperative to South Central Regional Water District.

Much like a cooperative, the water district is governed by a board of directors who are elected at their annual meeting. The seven directors make decisions based on the bylaws, member needs and future growth.

To accommodate a growing membership, SCWD recently redesigned its old water treatment facility to provide an additional supply of water. This fall, the plant will come online and supplement the water flow that SCWD receives from the city of Bismarck.

“This will give us two sources of water,” Neibauer says.

The solution lies under the sand

“People will notice a difference in taste,” Neibauer says.

The city of Bismarck uses chlorine to pretreat water, which has a taste and odor. By using other disinfectants and lessening chlorine use in rural water, Neibauer says the redesigned plant will incorporate a new process called membrane treatment to provide a better quality of water.

Doug Neibauer, executive director of SCWD, looks out at the newly designed water treatment plant seated on seven acres north of Bismarck. Neibauer has been with the water district since 1981.

“The only chlorine that we will use is for the final disinfectant before it’s sent out in the system.”

The new process, involving microfiltration and reverse osmosis, uses angled drilled wells underneath the river. The angled wells work with a well screen placed 10 to 20 feet below the natural sands of the river to draw water that is pre-filtered before it reaches the plant. Neibauer says this process cuts down on some of the high expense of surface water treatment.

Once the plant comes online, the SCWD plans to hire two more employees to work at the plant around the clock, bringing the total number of employees to seven. Neibauer says the staff stays busy providing overnight service to new homes and extending service to small towns. Over the next three years, Neibauer says SCWD will expand to serve the towns of Wilton, Regan, Wing and Driscoll

“We are adding approximately 23 miles of transmission pipeline, which includes storage and pumping stations, to get service to the city of Wilton. We plan to have service to Wilton by this fall,” Neibauer says.

For more information on the Better Health Channel, visit their Website.