Sen. Hogue Wants State Water Commission to Control WAWS Project - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

A bill seeks to shift who controls the Western Area Water Supply project, one session after lawmakers approved the project.

Minot Senator David Hogue proposes changing the control of the WAWS project from the WAWS board to the state water commission.

He says there is constant conflict with WAWS, landowners and independent water users.

Hogue told the Senate Industry, Business and Labor committee about many allegations of how the project is putting industry over residents.

The WAWS board does not support the change.

Hogue says, "I feel the situation is overheated, I think we ought to take a step back and put this WAWS authority under the control of the state water commission. I have confidence that they have the ability to regulate the natural tension that is going to be with this project for a long time between the independent water users and the need to cash flow this enterprise on the other hand."

 "We don't want it to impede this project, we have a lot of things to do we want to get water to more rural communities and rural residents and serve the industry. This transition may slow down this process and slow us down delivering that water to people who really want it," says Jaret Wirtz, Executive Director of WAWS.

WAWS was developed to deliver quality water to rural areas and towns of western North Dakota, paid for by selling water to the oil industry.

Legislators approved $110 million in loans for the project last session and are being asked for another 40 million in loans and 80 million in grants for WAWS this session.

The loans are designed to be repaid through sales of water to the oil industry.