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Orleans City Council Continues To Consider Possible Water Options

November 16, 2022 Steve Schwaller

(Orleans)– The Orleans City Council is continuing to research options when it comes to the city’s water supply. As we reported previously, the city currently gets its water from the city of Spirit Lake, but new regulations from the DNR require the city to have its own water Superintendent to oversee the distribution, along with valves and other special equipment for testing. While going that route remains an option, Mayor Bill Maas says it would cost roughly $500,000 to $1 million. Another option would be to enter into a contract with Iowa Lakes Regional Water.

The city council met Monday evening with an engineer but Maas says no action was taken. He says one thing remains certain, however…

“No matter what we do whether we stay with Spirit Lake or whether we would go with Lakes Regional Water, rural water, we’re going to have a considerable expense either way because of the fact to convert over things it’s going to cost a little bit of money and stuff, so. We are looking at increased water rates, that’s one thing for sure. It’s just where we get the water from, I guess.”

Meanwhile, Maas says they’ve already had requests from some residents wondering if they can hook up now to Iowa Lakes Regional Water…

“They were talking about wanting to hook up, they’re in an area where both rural water and our water lines run side-by-side almost and they were checking into the possibility of which one they should be hooking up to. Well according to the rules and regulations right now the only choice in the game is to hook up to our water supply, the current one that we have. We were kind of talking about that a year from now that may be a moot point because of the fact that we may end up going with Lakes Regional Water.”

The city needs to have a plan in place by July 1st, 2023, when the current contract with the city of Spirit Lake expires.

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