The Lyon County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday signed on to be a contributor to Lincoln Pipestone Rural Water’s North Area Water Source project.
The board voted unanimously to put in $9.8 million in bonding dollars for the project that aims to improve drinking water in areas in Redwood, Yellow Medicine and Lac qui Parle counties with poor water quality and/or limited quantities. It would also reduce wastewater discharge stream loading for communities dealing with discharge limit compliance issues.
Before Monday, LPRW had received a $9.9 million commitment from Lac qui Parle County. LPRW has secured $5.75 million in direct appropriations from the State of Minnesota Public Facilities Authority and has been issued funding in the form of a $2.194 million grant, as well as a $26.179 million loan from the USDA’s Rural Development program for a total of $28.373 million. LPRW will contribute an additional $4 million for the completion of the project.
“The reason we’re pursing this — one is to alleviate appropriations and distribution issues with our current north water source at Burr,” said Jason Overby of LPRW. “We have a lot of interest in the northern part of our system because of poor water quality.”
The project consists of an 18.5-mile transmission line from the LPRW treatment plant to a line near Clarkfield. That phase will likely begin in the spring of 2026. Construction of a treatment plant would take place in 2028.
“We hope to have our first drop of drinking water in the spring or early summer of 2028, and that will be compatible with our other source,” said Overby.
Overby said it is more palatable for counties to take on a smaller bond, and LPRW is relying on counties to issue bonds. After LQP County’s bonding commitment, the two other financing phases to cover its debt load are for $9.8 million and $6.5 million.
“Typically when we go into major capital improvement projects, we reach out to counties that are beneficiaries of improvements,” Overby said. “My legal counsel advised me that we can go to any of the 10 counties that we serve to make requests.”
Overby said Yellow Medicine County is still considering whether or not to commit financially, and Overby presented the project Tuesday in hopes Lyon County will consider being a bond issuer.
“Our project has a lot of complex funding mechanisms,” said Overby. “The City of Cottonwood has officially committed and has signed a water purchase agreement with us.”
Overby said LPRW intends to put a water tower up north of Green Valley. With a new water source near Boyd identified, LPRW has the ability to take existing distribution off and to move water back upwards into the system. Currently, there is only one storage facility in the Minneota area.
“We’re also looking at a booster upstream to help provide water from our Boyd source to that tower, as well as provide adequate flows of pressure to Cottonwood,” said Overby.
Lyon County has the second most accounts (994) in the 10-county area LPRW serves; Lincoln County has the most with 1,107 and Murray County has 158.
Commissioner Rick Anderson made the motion to approve the $9.8 million bond on behalf of LPRW; it was seconded by Chair Gary Crowley.
In other business Monday …
• The board set a date of Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. for an open house on the County’s comprehensive plan adoption. A public hearing will take place at 10 a.m. on Dec. 2. Both will take place in the Commissioner’s Room of the Lyon County Courthouse.
• The board moved to sign on to a resolution to join other counties in an effort to pursue legislative action to repeal Minnesota’s moratorium on nuclear power generation. Sherburne County had reached out to Lyon County on Oct. 15, encouraging the County to actively support the repeal.
