(Radio Iowa) – The drought has taken a toll in northwest Iowa, but two communities have found relief through hundreds of thousands of gallons of high-quality water from the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System piped into their communities. Sioux Center and Hull had been waiting for more than 30 years for their hook ups that came one month ago. They celebrated Tuesday with a ribbon cutting, where Lewis & Clark Executive Director Troy Larson talked about getting the project to this point. “This has been a long slog, and it’s taken us a lot longer to get here than we ever thought it would,’ he says. “I mean, this idea of Lewis and Clark started in the late 80s. Back when parachute pants were still popular. It was incorporated in 1990. We thought we’d get here about 2016 but for unfortunately, we didn’t get the federal funding as quick as we thought.”

Larson says adding Lewis & Clark water, which comes from the Missouri River and an aquifer will be transformational for the communities of Sioux Center and Hull. Sioux Center will receive 600-thousand gallons each day, while Hull pumps in 400-thousand gallons a day to blend with their current water supply. There were originally 59 communities which signed up for the project in 1993 — but the latest two make the total hooked up at 20. “In 1993 the rubber met the road in terms of committing to the project from the late 80s to 93 it was what I call the dating phase in 93 they had to get married,” he says. Larson says the project is working on expanding the system from producing 40 million gallons per day to 60 million gallons by 2031.

Congressman Randy Feenstra, grew up in Hull, and served on the Lewis & Clark board for seven-and-a-half years. He recalled the condition of the water in his home town was so bad they gave visitors a warning. “People who came to our house, you know people from outside just don’t drink the water because you’re gonna get sick I mean you’re gonna have problems some from this is true in Hull,” Feenstra says. Feenstra also recalls the meeting when funding plans were made known. “I remember being at the meeting where we finally heard that it was gonna be an annual appropriation, that we we’re gonna get funded,” Feenstra says. “But probably didn’t understand what that annual appropriation really meant. What a battle, a literal battle it would be every single year to get funding. But here we are.”

Feenstra commends all those involved in connecting the 377 miles of pipe that was laid and the additional infrastructure. The remaining communities to be connected to the service include Sheldon, which should connect to the system late this year or early next year; Madison, South Dakota should connect in the middle of 2024; and Sibley should connect in late 2024 or early 2025.