Council to consider tabbing Randall Community Water District as Mitchell's secondary water source

MITCHELL — The Mitchell City Council will consider approving an agreement on Tuesday that would select Randall Community Water District as the city’s secondary water source.

Building the infrastructure to receive water from Randall Community Water District is estimated to cost $86 million. The estimated price tag that the city would be responsible for funding the costs to construct the water infrastructure is $78 million, thanks to a grant Randall Water Community District secured for the proposed project.

If the city enters into the proposed agreement with the Lake Andes-based Randall Community Water District, it could provide Mitchell with 5 million gallons of water per day, according to Public Works Director Joe Schroeder’s memo to the council. As of now, Mitchell’s maximum daily capacity of water is 2.6 million gallons. And the city has been exceeding the maximum daily amount on a more regular basis in recent years.

“During the summer, our average is roughly 2-3 million gallons per day. Our highest ever recorded was 4.41 on July 6, 2017,” Schroeder said in a 2022 interview.

The city is seeking to fund the project through a 30-year loan with a 1.875% interest rate attached to it. Breaking down the loan into a monthly payment, the proposed contract draft states the city would be responsible for paying a minimum of $283,643 per month over the course of 30 years. The monthly payment amounts could be subject to change, according to the language in the contract.

Schroeder explained in his memo to the council that a pipeline would be built to connect Mitchell to Randall Community Water District. If the project is approved and an agreement is entered upon with the city, Schroeder noted the city would take ownership of a portion of the new pipeline extending from Mitchell to Stickney when the agreement with Randall Community Water District expires.

B-Y Water District is the city’s sole water supplier. B-Y Water would remain as a water supplier for the city if the council approves entering into an agreement with Randall Community Water District as a secondary source. Both B-Y Water and Randall Community Water District utilize the Missouri River to serve communities with water.

Mitchell has been exceeding its maximum daily capacity of 2.6 million gallons of water more frequently over the past few years, which prompted city leaders to pursue a secondary water source in 2022. Among the secondary water source options the council discussed in 2022 were building a pipe that connects to the Missouri River in Chamberlain, upgrading the Lake Mitchell water treatment plant and expanding existing water supply facilities to use B-Y Water as its secondary source.

The cheapest option on the table was expanding the city’s existing facilities to utilize B-Y Water at an estimated cost of $40 million. Constructing a pipeline from Mitchell to Chamberlain was estimated to cost $150 million. The idea of using Lake Mitchell water as a secondary source was not embraced by the council. After all, the city moved away from using lake water to supply Mitchell residents with water a few decades ago when it switched to B-Y Water.

Considering B-Y Water is the city’s sole water supplier, Schroeder previously explained that expanding the city’s existing facilities to use B-Y Water as a secondary source would not diversify Mitchell’s water supply. Another key reason city leaders are seeking to secure a secondary water source is to have a diversified water supply that could avoid future problems in the event of a catastrophe or structural issues impacting Mitchell’s sole water supplier serving the city.

The council has shown support for entering into an agreement with Randall Community Water Distrcit when the governing body approved implementing water rate hikes in 2023 that factored in a future agreement with the Lake Andes-based water supplier.

Sam Fosness joined the Mitchell Republic in May 2018. He was raised in Mitchell, S.D., and graduated from Mitchell High School. He continued his education at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, where he graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in English. During his time in college, Fosness worked as a news and sports reporter for The Volante newspaper.