US Senate committee endorses $20 million for Missouri River drinking water pipeline studies

Two bills to fund studies on proposed Missouri River drinking water pipelines for South Dakota are headed to the U.S. Senate after a Wednesday vote by the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

The bills are sponsored by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Mike Rounds, Republicans from South Dakota. Together, they would provide $20 million for Bureau of Reclamation feasibility studies for the Western Dakota Regional Water System and Dakota Mainstem Regional Water System, with $10 million for each study.

South Dakotan tells Congress of ‘growing water security risk’ if pipeline project is delayed

The Western Dakota Regional Water System aims to build a pipeline from the Missouri River to supply communities across the western portion of the state, whose drinking water needs are currently served by aquifers. 

The Dakota Mainstem Regional Water System would serve areas in eastern South Dakota, western Minnesota and northern Iowa.

The bills for South Dakota, which would not fund pipeline construction, were among 13 bills taken up by the energy committee on Wednesday morning and passed with no opposition on a voice vote.

Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, has sponsored identical bills to the ones passed by the Senate committee on Wednesday. Each of Johnson’s bills had hearings in April before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries and await a vote by the full committee.