Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announces the three recipients of Iowa’s Water Infrastructure Funds Monies during an event Friday at the Sioux Center water plant. The Lewis & Clark Regional Water System was awarded $12 million to expand its water system that will serve cities in northwest Iowa.
SIOUX CENTER, Iowa — Gov. Kim Reynolds has said the main theme of her recent “Condition of the State” address was about entrusting Iowans to build and nurture their own communities.
On Friday, the Republican governor traveled to the Northwest Iowa city of Sioux Center to tout a project that’s taken more than 30 years of building and nurturing. Reynolds announced the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System would receive a $12 million grant from a state water quality initiative.
Sioux Center is one of the largest users in Northwest Iowa of the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System which, when fully finished, will run 45 million gallons a day through 20 cities and rural water systems in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota.
People are also reading…
“(It) really does ensure that Iowans will be connected to clean drinking water,” Reynolds said at Sioux Center’s water treatment plant, which is near the connection point for Sioux Center to receive water from the Lewis & Clark system.
Sioux Center is one of the largest Siouxland users of the multi-state water system, which got off the ground in 1990, with authorization of funding in 2000 and the initial construction in 2004. Sioux Center and neighboring Hull are expected to be connected near the end of 2022 or into 2023, while Sheldon will be added between 2023 and 2024 and Sibley will come on somewhere between 2024 and 2025.
Pipeline workers dig along 380th Street on the north edge of Sioux Center, Iowa, Thursday, July 16, 2020. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the start of construction on the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System pipeline that serves South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota.
The $12 million award from the state will go toward: “constructing three pump stations by Lebanon, Larchwood and Hull, as well as a ground storage reservoir near Hull and adding pumps to the Dove Avenue pump station. according to a document from Lewis & Clark Executive Director Troy Larson.
The project is one of three water-related developments receiving $10 million or more from the state that Reynolds’ administration announced Friday. Dyersville will get $11 million for a utilities project aimed to bolster the Field of Dreams while Des Moines has $15 million coming its way for dam mitigation meant to compliment the Raccoon River.
The base system initiative was funded, in part, with allocations from the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed by President Biden last year. Only two of Iowa’s six-member congressional delegation — Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne — voted for the $1 trillion plan. Federal money is also coming through the American Rescue Plan for the expansion.
According to Larson, additional federal funding is needed to complete the Lewis & Clark water system. During his time at the podium at the water treatment plant Friday, he said the expansion is needed because droughts in the state made it clear to members of the system that more water would be needed.
“Hope that expansion is complete in eight to 10 years,” Larson said.
Murray Hulstein, a chairman for the system, called the funding allotments the “latest example” of elected leaders in Iowa “putting words into action.”
Troy Larson, executive director of the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System, stands next to a stack of PVC pipe at a drop area southeast of Beresford, South Dakota, in December. The water wholesaler on Thursday awarded an $8.2 million contract to build 10 miles of pipeline near Sioux Center, Iowa.
Following the speeches, Reynolds took just two questions from media, with the second focused on why water infrastructure is a top priority for her administration.
“One of the first bills I signed was a water quality bill,” Reynolds said. “It’s just really important if we want to continue to see growth in northwest Iowa.”
The first question the governor addressed was the competing tax-cut plans that her party is currently floating in the Legislature.
“The fact that we’re all talking about tax cuts, I think it’s really exciting…It’s an indication that we’re going to get something done,” she said.
Reynolds is touring Iowa to pitch her proposal for a 4% flat-rate state income tax and also to phase out state taxes on retirement income.
The House Republican plan closely mirrors Reynolds’ by gradually reducing the state tax on Iowa workers’ income until all workers’ income is taxed at 4% and phasing out taxes on retirement income. Senate Republicans propose lowering the income tax rate for all filers to 3.6 percent over five years and eventually phasing out the tax altogether. GOP Senate leaders also outlined a plan to reduce the state tax on businesses and eliminating some tax credits and exemptions.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says that a pair of tax cut proposals coming from Senate and House Republicans that differ from her proposed cuts only indicate that momentum is building for changes in Iowa’s tax collections. Her comments came during a press availability Friday in Sioux Center.
Jared McNett is an online editor and reporter for the Sioux City Journal. You can reach him at 712-293-4234 and follow him on Twitter @TwoHeadedBoy98.
