Today's Worthington Globe editorial observes Water system cut would dry up growth:
Scott Hain, the general manager of Worthington Public Utilities, was incredulous when he learned President Bush’s new budget allocates no new dollars for the Lewis and Clark regional water project.
Last year, the project received almost $27 million in funding, a figure below the project’s request of $35 million but well in excess of Bush’s proposal of $15 million. With Bush offering even less — and you can’t get any less than zero — in this budget, advocates of the three-state water project would appear to have their hands full. . . .
Still, Hain was optimistic Tuesday that federal support for Lewis and Clark will continue to grow.
“It’s just shocking the administration would zero the project out, but our congressional delegation has been able to bump the administration number up every year,” Hain said. “I think there’s been only one year that funding has decreased from one year to the next.”
Area federal legislators from both sides of the aisle, predictably, slammed the Lewis and Clark funding cut. Quite frankly, they’ve got every right to be irate at Bush’s passing over of the project. The system, a partnership of 15 cities and five rural water districts in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, would get treated water from wells near the Missouri River through the 337 miles of underground pipe, the Associated Press explained in a story published in this newspaper Tuesday. Without an ample water supply, future development for this region will be next to impossible.
“There are some heavy hitters going to the plate for us,” Hain said. Let’s hope they can connect for a timely home run.
In a statement today, Walz stepped up to the plate. Some excerpts:
Today, Congressman Tim Walz criticized as "outrageous," President Bush's decision to eliminate funding for the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System in his FY2009 Budget. The Lewis and Clark project will, when completed, provide safe, reliable drinking water to over 300,000 people in a roughly 5,000 square mile area in South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota. . .
. . ."I cannot comprehend why President Bush would cut funding for the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System from his budget," continued Walz. "There are communities in southern Minnesota that are so short of water that they literally cannot permit a single new home to be built. We're all in this together, and President Bush's outrageous decision to cut funding for a program that provides water to rural areas hurts our families, our communities and our businesses."
In 2001, President Bush said, "A priority is to work with states on important development projects. And the Lewis & Clark Rural Water Project is a project that will be in my budget, and something that we can work together on."1
"Maybe President Bush thinks no one remembers that just a few years ago, he promised that he would work with Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota to make the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System a reality, and that he would include it in is budget," Congressman Walz said. "Or maybe he thinks that he doesn't need to keep his promises, now that he's on his way out the door. But I remember, and I intend to work with Republicans and Democrats to make sure that this project gets funded, with or without his help."
* Seventeen of the 20 local municipalities that are participatingin this project have prepaid $87 million dollars of their local share of the expenses, in order to help keep inflationary costs at a minimum.
* Additionally, the three states involved-Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa-have committed to prepay their share of the project as well.
* President Bush's FY2008 Budget requested $15 million for theproject. At that level of funding, the project would not be completed until 2051 and would cost more than $768 million.
* In 2007, Congressman Walz, in a bipartisan effort withCongresswoman Herseth Sandlin, Congressman King, Senators Johnson, Harkin, Coleman, Klobuchar and Thune, successfully obtained $27 million in funding for the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System.
* At that level of funding, the project could be completed by 2019with an overall cost of close to $524 million.
The President's decision to zero-out funding for the Lewis and Clark Rural Water Project makes us wonder if he's drinking the Kool-Aid in the new MHSP book that the editor of the Marshall Independent ended up throwing down in disgust last week.
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