Improved Water for Improved Life
North Prairie Rural Water District (NPRWD), headquartered in Minot, provides rural water for the northcentral portion of North Dakota. The area includes Ward, McHenry, northern McLean, western Pierce, western Sheridan, and western Mountrail Counties. Originally constructed in 1976, the rural water system began as the North Prairie Rural Water Association.
North Prairie Rural Water District operates over 1700 miles of distribution pipeline, 19 booster stations, and one elevated water storage reservoir. The district also operates a water treatment plant located on the eastern edge of McHenry County. The plant removes iron and manganese with additional treatment of nanofiltration to remove sulfate and sodium as the system softens the water.
Over the past 43 years, the NPRWD system has seen a significant increase in users, growing from 900 users in 1977 to over 4100 individual users and 11 communities today, with an approximate population of 13,250. This growth has significantly impacted the system’s existing infrastructure, pushing the limits of the piping, booster stations, and water treatment plant capacity. The NPRWD distribution, pumping, storage, and treatment system has been in constant construction since 2005.
Since 2004, Interstate Engineering has worked closely with NPRWD. We have upgraded distribution mains, reservoir storage, and pumping capacity. Interstate Engineering designed the water treatment capacity expansion in 2006.
This expansion brought the plant capacity from 200,000 gallons per day to 1.15 million gallons per day. The system also has a contract with the City of Minot to treat NPRWD’s well permit for an additional 1.0 million gallons per day.
To continue to accommodate the growth of NPRWD, Interstate Engineering will work with the district to improve the treatment system. The iron concentration in the raw water is above 3.5 ppm and manganese above 0.75
ppm resulting in heavy loading on the filters requiring backwashing every day. The annual water use for backwashing alone is over 12 million gallons.
The improvements will include a building expansion to house a forced-air draft aerator, flocculation basin, sedimentation basin, and chemical feed equipment. The project also includes the replacement of some valves, SCADA upgrades, and interior piping. The presedimentation of the iron will reduce the backwashing significantly, saving the district 4 million to 5 million gallons of treated water annually.
The opinion of the total project cost is $3.8 million. The financing for the project is a loan with the ND State Revolving Fund.
Interstate Engineering Team
Darrell Hournbuckle, PE – Senior Project Engineer & Client Manager
Wade Senger, PE – Project Engineer, Project Manager & Design Engineer
Todd Langbehn – Drafter
Jeff Douty – Observer
JohnTrebesch, PE – Project Engineer for Water Treatment Plant Design
Alex Schwarzhoff, PE – Structural Engineer
Dan Harris – Structural Drafter
