source development
For over 20 years Edgerton has been discussing a connection to Lincoln Pipestone Rural Water (LPRW). The current Council wanted an outside opinion to evaluate all alternatives and to provide a recommendation. These alternatives included expanding their existing well field, connecting to LPRW for 100% of their demand or blending with LPRW. DGR completed a preliminary engineering report that met all the requirements for Rural Development. In fact, this report is being used as an example for other communities to use. This report evaluated the most cost-effective long-term solution for their water system. This included determining the cost of production to compare between the sources. Ultimately, the City decided to connect to LPRW. This was not the most cost-effective solution. However, the non-monetary factors such as the long-term viability of the aquifer and water quality steered the decision to blend the City’s water with LPRW.
The City of Marshall Minnesota (population 13,664) is a thriving community in Southwest Minnesota, who relies on ground water to supply safe drinking water. Their growing water demands were exceeding the long-term capacity of their aquifers, which had the MN Department of Natural Resources placing further restrictions on their limited capacity. They had already gone 8 miles outside of town to find water years before… this time they would have to expand their search.
Marshall Municipal Utilities found a new water source which was 27 miles away from their water treatment plant. DGR Engineering designed a combination of 20” & 24” pipeline to deliver this water to the City. We used our knowledge of cost effective rural construction to save Marshall Municipal Utilities millions of dollars in construction costs. In the end, Marshall Municipal Utilities added over 4 million gallons per day of water to fuel their growth for years to come. And with the economical design and bid prices, they had money left in their project budget to tackle other much needed improvements.