It's been more than a year since work began on the Northwest Area Water Supply Project pumping station in Minot, and now it appears the end is in sight.

Recently, Dan Erdmann toured the new facility to see how millions of gallons of water will make it to our drinking glasses each day.

(Dan Erdmann, KX News) It may only be one small step in the Northwest Area Water Supply Project, but once completed, it will be one giant leap for rural communities in western North Dakota.

(Alan Walter, Minot Public Works Dir.) "When this project is done, all of the pumping into the distribution systems will be taking place out of this facility here."


(Dan Erdmann, KX News) NAWS groundwork began nearly a decade ago to bring quality water from Lake Sakakawea to dozens of communities throughout the region. Once the water reaches Minot, it will enter the city's water treatment plant to be purified and shipped across the street to this new, high-tech pumping facility.

(Alan Walter, Minot Public Works Dir.) "For Minot, this is replacing pumps that are 50 and 60 years old and it's putting in a pump system that will pump water all the way through the distribution system for NAWS, all the way up to Mohall, Bottineau when the NAWS system is done."


(Dan Erdmann, KX News) Minot Public Works Director, Alan Walter, says the facility is a joint project between NAWS and the city of Minot. It contains two sets of pumps- one distributing water to the NAWS system, the other to Minot's distribution system. Travis Johnson is a NAWS construction inspector with Houston Engineering who's been overseeing construction work on the facility since it began last fall.

(Travis Johnson, Houston Engineering) "Well right now, we've got almost every discipline in there working at the same time. We've got H-vac folks installing stuff, the electrical guys, they've got pumps set in, they're running wiring to those, they're finishing up the concrete work, doing the final sealing and patching on the concrete that needs to be done. We've got backfilling guys out here compacting and backfilling around the reservoir."


(Dan Erdmann, KX News) A reservoir capable of storing 2 million gallons of treated water for distribution. Compare that to Minot's current storage capacity of only 300,000 gallons. If the facility happens to exceed the 2 million gallon limit, the excess water will flow into this emergency overflow pond, a procedure Johnson feels won't ever be necessary. He says the new pumping facility is the true definition of state-of-the-art.

(Travis Johnson, Houston Engineering) "The controls on this are current technology, in fact, some of the stuff we anticipated has actually been made obsolete and new products have come available, and those have been substituted in."


(Dan Erdmann, KX News) He says their goal right now, is to complete all outside work before the snow falls, and so far, they're on pace to meet that deadline.

(Travis Johnson, Houston Engineering) "Nothing's come to a stop, we've kept going, and like I said, progress is being made really well on this project."


(Dan Erdmann, KX News) That means good news, and good water for thousands of residents.

(Alan Walter, Minot Public Works Dir.) "It's amazing, really amazing."


(Dan Erdmann, KX News) Dan Erdmann, KX News.

Walter says they hope to have the facility operational by late this fall, and immediately after, they'll begin a new project to improve and expand the Minot Water Treatment Plant. watch the video | save this article / add to your favorites list