The city of Bottineau is getting a water quantity and quality improvement following completion of key water supply infrastructure. This week, the city will begin to use water from the Northwest Area Water Supply (NAWS) project. The NAWS project already serves much of north central North Dakota using an interim water supply from Minot. Missouri River water will become the long-term source after construction on the biota water treatment plant near Max and intake modifications to the Snake Creek Pumping Plant are completed in the next year or two.
The overall purpose of the NAWS project is to address long-standing water supply and water quality problems in northern North Dakota by treating and delivering high quality Missouri River water to the region. When completed, NAWS will serve up to 81,000 water users and 16 public water systems.
"This was long awaited and much appreciated by the citizens of Bottineau," said Perry Shoenborn, Mayor of Bottineau.
Bottineau had been using a groundwater source with wells from the Turtle Mountain area. That source is poor in terms of both quality and quantity. With NAWS water, residents are likely to notice a water quality improvement and their water heaters will last significantly longer. The city is also less likely to experience water shortages and outages.
"As a member of the State Water Commission for the last 51/2 years, we have worked incredibly hard to advance the NAWS project," said Jason Zimmerman, State Water Commissioner for the Mouse River Basin. "Although there have been setbacks along the way, this is a significant milestone for the city of Bottineau, its residents and all future NAWS customers to have water heading north. Thank you to the city of Minot for making this temporary solution work while construction continues."
Since 2019, approximately 70 miles of pipeline was installed to serve Bottineau, other cities and rural water systems. Construction of the pipeline to serve Bottineau was completed in January and will eventually also serve All Seasons Water Users District's system.
"One of the North Dakota Department of Water Resources' (DWR) key objectives is to support beneficial use of Missouri River system water and other available water supply sources for the people of our state," said Andrea Travnicek, director of DWR. "NAWS has been an important focus of that objective and is a huge part of what we do. We're really excited for the people in Bottineau to be a part of the NAWS project and its benefits."
Categories: North Dakota, General