I had a foot soldier send this to me in the mail (no, not email, the other one).

Not sure who it was, or the point, but hey it is an interesting read;

Funding for the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System will not flow from the state of Iowa anytime soon.

The Iowa Legislature did not approve a $1.8 million federal funding advance for fiscal year 2019-20 and a $1.7 million federal funding advance for fiscal year 2020-21 that were requested by the four non-connected Iowa members of Lewis & Clark, which are the cities of Hull, Sheldon, Sibley and Sioux Center.

I have often been critical of L&C, and probably why the article was sent to me. I have often thought L&C exists for L&C. Discuss.

I have often argued that Lewis & Clark sustains itself for Lewis & Clark;

When I looked at data from two longstanding state monitoring wells located near the water system, it suggested that from 2009 through 2018 there was a decline in the observation well water levels. Neither the state Geologic Survey, the DENR or the operator have provided any public reports on these water levels since 2015. This should be done.

Was Sioux Falls almost $100 million investment worth it?

A South DaCola foot soldier sent me this interesting 990 data on what L & C spent on lobbyists over the years (DOC): Lewis-N-Clark-990s

It’s interesting to see the slow dribble of money coming into the organization (except for suckering the taxpayers of Sioux Falls for $80 million – which saved them).

I have often argued L & C was created to give a couple dozen people who make 6 figures a year something to bitch about our Federal Government.

Get in line. It gets longer every day.

Looks like Lewis & Clark is trying to hoodwink us again. I would suggest Mr. Larson buy a plane ticket to DC and start talking to them about funding his project. Sioux Falls taxpayers have already coughed up plenty for a project that we will never use to full capacity for decades. I got this update from a South DaCola foot soldier;

Troy Larson gave an update (FF 24:00).  He said that in spite of delegations from three states (SD, IA and MN)  meeting with the Feds, they had made little progress to resolve this. The remaining liability for the 20 members is 194m if the Feds are not forthcoming with what they have promised. Larson said that because of the large amount of pre-payment that the members have already made and the percentage of project completion that it has moved Lewis and Clark from 7th to 2nd on the list (?)  He did make the comment that he didn’t think that this would have much effect.

Councilor Jamison made a comment at the end about “helping out the little guys,” Troy Larson also brought up the “nuclear option“.  I have only heard him mention this one other time and I think that was several years ago when they were discussing Sioux Falls $70m pre-payment.

One of the Councilors did ask about SF’s need for additional water in 2012.  The answer was that we do not need the water, but we are obligated to buy it anyhow, something to the tune of $2m for next year alone! No wonder those “user fee/taxes” had to go up so much.

This was something that Cotter did confess to me and group who met with him earlier in the year. I seemed confused by this. Why spend $80 million for a pipeline we will only use if we need to? He did tell us it was ‘more expensive’ to use Lewis and Clark and that is why it will be for backup only.

I hope the city treads lightly this time when it comes to Lewis & Clark. We have already bought the farm on this deal, we don’t need a second plantation.

My number one investigative reporter (Sodapop) and I went to the ‘steps in the river’ tonight to look at the progress. It really irks me when we blow $5 million dollars on something we don’t need, or will even serve a purpose, then turn around and charge higher water rates because ‘We can’t take money out of the 2nd penny for water pipes’

Oh bullshit.

You have to remember that this project was planned during the Munson administration when there was a good possibility that the EC was going to be built next to Cherapa Place. Building this silly structure now is pointless! When the money for this was allocated by the city council, Mike Cooper was asked what the $5 million was going to be spent on, and he didn’t have a clue, because they were still planning it. Yup, that’s right, he basically was asking for a blank check. While I am all for park and bike trail upgrades, we certainly do not need an amphitheatre that goes into the river and a $700,000 pedestrian bridge (when there is two of them 1/2 block away in both directions).

This is why I question water rate increases.

THE LEWIS & CLARK PIPELINE BOONDOGGLE

And while we are on that subject, I started thinking about this post I made back in 2008 when the L & C boondoggle was approved in 2006 (see cartoon) (ignore my rant about watering parks, I found out later that they use unfiltered water from the river to water parks):

The dirty little secret about Lewis & Clark is that it still isn’t a 100% done deal, we are still waiting for Federal funding, and recently Senator Johnson commented that he was not sure when that funding would come.

This is an interesting sticking point, because what we didn’t know then was that we really didn’t need L & C. Maybe that is why the FED’s were reluctant? Cotter confirmed it with me on Monday, that L & C was an emergency water source that would not be used that much. So why would the FED’s pony up? But even a bigger question arises? Why did Munson and the council take the bait, hook, line and sinker?

I remember when the bond vote came up, I told Staggers to vote against it, in fact I think I begged him. He felt he had ‘no choice’ because the Feds were not giving them the money. And guess what. We know why!