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Fort Peck-Dry Prairie Regional Water System
The Fort Peck-Dry Prairie Regional Water System, planned for the NE portion of the state, is a project of considerable scale, designed to bring high quality drinking water to residents of the region, with an authorized price tag of $193 million (1998 dollars). The on-Reservation portion costs will be paid totally by the Federal government, and the off-Reservation portion will be 76% Federal grant, 12% State match, 12% local match.
Legislation for project authorization was passed by the U.S. Congress on October 13, 2000, and signed into law by President Clinton as Public Law 106-382 in November, 2000. The final engineering report (FER) was submitted to and released by Congress in 2003;a programmatic environmental assessment (EA) and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) were issued by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) in 2002. Reclamation is the lead Federal agency for the project. The system achieved a significant milestone in 2006, when it was included in the President’s budget for FY 2007.
Project sponsors must make annual appropriations requests to Congress, and of the amount approved, the Fort Peck Tribes will receive almost 72%, and Dry Prairie Rural Water slightly more than 28%. Total actual dollars received thus far have been:
- Federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2001, $435,000
- FY 02, $3.6 million;
- FY 03, $7 million appropriated, $4.471 million received;
- FY 04, $6.7 million;
- FY 05, $6 million;
- FY 06, $15.8 million; and,
- FY 07, $7 million (under a Continuing Resolution)
- FY 08, $9.8 million
- FY 09, $10 million, plus $40 million in American Reinvestment & Recovery Act funds
- FY 10, $8 million
Funds received for 2001 were used to complete environmental studies to satisfy the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), complete the draft Final Engineering Report (FER), and cover system administrative costs by both the Fort Peck Tribes and Dry Prairie Rural Water Authority (DPRWA). FY02 funds were used for design/oversight of the Missouri River water intake facility and the water treatment plant (WTP), purchase of property on which to locate the WTP between Wolf Point and Poplar, securing easements, and administrative costs.
Engineering services for the entire project were procured by both the Tribes and DPRWA, and Reclamation first released funds for construction purposes in 2003.
The Fort Peck Tribes held formal groundbreaking ceremonies for the on-Reservation portions of the system in September 2003. In 2004, the Tribes’ contractor constructed the regional raw water intake facility on the Missouri River, southeast of Wolf Point. In 2004 a contract for preliminary site work and sludge pond construction for the WTP was awarded; that work was substantially complete by autumn of 2005. After two attempts to advertise for bids for the entire water treatment plant (WTP) facility were unsuccessful and the process scrutinized both by the Fort Peck Tribes and Reclamation, the third attempt divided the WTP construction into smaller, more manageable schedules. As a result, contracts for construction of the clear wells and the washwater recovery basin were awarded early in 2007, with those portions of the WTP reaching 95% completion by July, 2009. The final phase of the WTP is currently (beginning July, 2009) under construction and is due to be finished by July 2011, in time to coincide with the completion of construction of the water supply main from the WTP to the Town of Poplar. The $40 million in ARRA funds received by the Fort Peck Tribes in 2009 have been committed to: a) completion of the water treatment plant; b) main pipeline construction between the WTP location and Poplar; and, c) construction of the remaining segment of raw water pipeline from intake to WTP.
Off the reservation, in October, 2003, construction began on the first leg of the Dry Prairie Rural Water System. Dry Prairie finished this first phase of pipeline construction from the Culbertson WTP north to Medicine Lake in the fall of 2004, using treated Missouri River water from Culbertson on an interim basis to supply the communities of Froid and Medicine Lake, as well as a limited number of rural users. In 2006 Dry Prairie constructed 190 miles of pipeline, known as the “A” Branch Lines project, which resulted in connection of more than 190 additional rural users as well as the community of Bainville. Along with two new 500,000 gallon storage reservoirs, this was the extent of work that could be done in the southeastern region of the project area until construction of either the regional WTP plant and supply lines from the Reservation system or an upgrade to Culbertson’s WTP was achieved. The Authority shifted its primary construction efforts in 2009 to the southwestern portions of its planned service area, utilizing and augmenting existing water treatment and delivery infrastructure, as well as constructing new pipelines, to bring regional water to the town of Nashua and to users in rural portions of Valley County.
Initial estimates were that the project would take 10-15 years to complete, dependent upon steadily increasing annual Federal appropriations, which would peak at about $30 million per year. Based on current levels of Congressional appropriations, and rising cost indexing on materials for both the water treatment plant and water supply pipelines, current estimates by engineers and Reclamation indicate that the project would need to be funded at a level of $20 million per year for the next 22 years in order to be fully built out by 2030 AD. In comparison, a sum in excess of $50 million per year would be needed to finish the project by 2013, the originally scheduled year of completion.
Dry Prairie Rural Water Authority
Dry Prairie Rural Water Website
Chairperson: Marvin Tarum
Vice-Chairman: Charlie Cahill
Secretary-Treasurer: Rick Knick
DPRW Board Members are: Marvin Tarum & Allen Bunk (Valley County CD), Gordy Kampen & Jon Bolstad (Sheridan County CD), Charlie Cahill & Jim Tande (Daniels County CD), and Wagner Harmon & Rick Knick (Roosevelt County CD).
Dry Prairie Staff
Clint Jacobs, Manager
Joni Sherman, Office Manager
Steve Baldwin, Operations & Construction Foreman
Troy Spradley, Field Rep/Construction Inspector/Water Operator
Doug Portra, Water Operator
Contact information
P.O. Box 577
Culbertson, MT 59218
(406)787-5382
FAX: (406)787-5392
