Mission: Quality water for southwest North Dakota
Vision: People and business succeeding with quality water
Southwest Water Authority (SWA), a political subdivision, was established by the North Dakota State Legislature in 1991. It is governed by a 15-member board of directors representing the following counties: Adams, Billings, Bowman, Dunn, Golden Valley, Grant, Hettinger, Mercer, Morton, Oliver, Slope and Stark, and the cities of Dickinson and Mandan.
The Southwest Pipeline Project (SWPP) is a state-owned, fully-integrated regional water system administered by the North Dakota State Water Commission (SWC). The SWPP transports raw water from Lake Sakakawea to the Dickinson Water Treatment Plant (WTP), the Southwest WTP and the OMND WTP where it is treated and delivered to the SWA’s customers in southwest North Dakota and Perkins County, South Dakota. The SWPP provides quality water to 33 communities, Missouri West Water System, and Perkins County Rural Water System in South Dakota.
The Five Separate Public Water Systems (PWS) of the SWPP
On the map, the area in blue is served from the water treatment facilities in Dickinson. The area in green is served from the OMND WTP, seven miles north of Zap, ND.
The southern yellow area makes up the Tower Hill and Junction Inn PWSs. These two pocket areas were constructed as part of the SWPP, but SWA purchases the water from the Missouri West Water System (MWWS), a political subdivision of Morton County Water Resource District, to serve these customers. This water is sourced from the Missouri River, treated at the Mandan Water Treatment Plant, and purchased by MWWS from the City of Mandan.
The northern yellow area is the Crown Butte PWS. The SWPP constructed the distribution system in the eastern portion, but purchases water from MWWS to serve these customers. The area to the west with the green lines is also the Crown Butte PWS, but was constructed and is operated by MWWS. MWWS purchases water from SWA for service to these customers.
SWA is responsible for the management, operations and maintenance of the SWPP. SWA delivers water to nearly 8,000 rural customers through more than 5,600 miles of pipeline. SWA manages 32 water storage tanks and reservoirs enabling it to store about 36-million gallons of water.