Clay County Commission

Dan Haglund

The Clay County Board of Commissioners approved up to $78,000 to finalize the judicial formation of the West Central Regional Water District on Tuesday in Moorhead.
To dovetail on a Feb. 5 presentation to the board by AE2S engineer Steven Slick and Lucas Spaeth, WCRWD board chair, detailing the need and formation of the rural water district, Clay County Administrator Stephen Larson made the official monetary request
“When we started this process, there had not been a water district formation going back to the 1980s,” Larson said. “At the initial process, we were given an estimate of around $300,000.”
Larson said unfortunately, the first estimate was about $500,000 low.
Larson said take make up for this gap, additional funding is being requested from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order to keep the process and project moving forward.
The request is for an additional $150,000 to $200,000 based on funds received in the summer.
Larson said the project would be looking to utilize those funds in the same way percentagewise as in the initial ask of Polk County (45 percent), Clay County (39 percent) and Norman County (16 percent), which roughly spreads the financial amounts on geographic percentage of the water district.
Clay County’s portion of the $150,000 total request comes to $58,500. At this level, Polk’s portion comes to $67,500 and Norman’s is $24,000.
If the request comes in at $200,000, Clay’s portion would rise to $78,000, Polk would be at $90,000 and Norman at $32,000.
“Providing these dollars would allow us to not have any further delays and to continue moving forward,” Larson said.
Larson said other funding sources are being sought, but no clear answers are available as yet.
Commissioner Paul Krabbenhoft, Dist. 1, advocates for looking into the Repair and Aid Fund, and inquired with Clay County Attorney Brian Melton for his advice on appropriateness toward such a request. Krabbenhoft cited water safety concerns, including the detection of small amounts poisonous arsenic.
“I think some of the question really is about primarily buffer zone creation and monitoring and management versus just all water repairing and aid issues,” Melton said.
Krabbenhoft pushed for additional words from Melton on potentially requesting funds from it.
“I think there has been expanded uses of it,” Melton said. “The worst thing that could happen is that someone could come back and challenge it. And then we’d have to refund that balance if it came out of there and it was not a proper use.”
Commissioner Ezra Baer, Dist. 2, added that when and if the EPA grant comes in about July, the board could use funds from it to reimburse any present monetary outlays.
The West Central Regional Water District includes the counties of Clay, Norman and Polk. The district established final boundaries last spring, encompassing 30 cities and approximately 40,000 people. Its supply comes from existing Minnesota and North Dakota municipal and rural water systems, and is the first rural water district formed in the state since 1985.
Cities in the northern portion include Trail, Gully and Crookston, and on the southern end Barnesville and Comstock.