Cooperative water systems make sense

The idea of regional water systems is catching on.

McCook residents know all about the problem; we're the proud owners of a new water treatment plant that brings the city in compliance for even the latest federal drinking water standards, including arsenic, uranium and nitrate contamination.

It's an expensive proposition that we'll be paying for for 30 years, not to mention a million dollars a year to operate.

The idea might not be practical in McCook's case, and was never seriously considered, but it makes sense, in some cases, for communities to share water systems.

A good example is the Bartley, Indianola, Cambridge Water Agency, which is getting ready to drill three water supply wells for the cooperative water system.

BIC is applying for a Nebraska Department of Natural Resources water transfer permit to allow water to be transferred from the well sites north of Bartley into the three communities.

About half the communities' existing wells are being abandoned, except one each for fire protection, and perhaps another if it meets drinking-water standards.

Earlier, the Bartley and Indianola received a $393,000 Community Development Block Grant funding for the well field, and a USDA Rural Development grant provided $231,000 for Bartley and $2.1 million for Indianola to complete the BIC project.

In a similar project, Holbrook received $250,000 in CDBG funding for a pipeline to bring drinking water from Arapahoe, and the USDA-RD provided additional loan and grant funding of $886,000.

The plan got the attention of eight rural communities in Northeast Nebraska, which are now studying a project that also could be expanded to households, farms and businesses between the towns.

The towns include Belden, Coleridge, Laurel, Magnet, McLean, Osmond, Randolph and Wausau.

The idea won't work everywhere in the state, especially where towns are too far apart for a pipeline to be economically feasible.

But in light of high standards for public drinking water systems, and the high price of providing it, working together makes more sense than ever.