Many of the residents of central South Dakota dealt with water problems that were either expensive to remedy or could not be rectified. Because of these problems, it was requested by a group of people that the local water development board, Cendak Water Development District, later known as the Mid-Dakota Water Development District, investigate if there would be interest in doing something similar to the rural water system to the north, WEB Rural Water System. The board sponsored several hearings throughout the area and found that there was a great deal of interest, a steering committee was formed to help with the collection of good intention fees which was used to conduct a feasibility study which was completed by Dewild Grant Reckert and Associates, an engineering firm in Rock Rapids, IA.

A separate interim board (consisting of Susan Hargens, Orient; Earl & Marilou Briggs, Pierre; and Duane Aymar, Miller) was formed to set up the corporation, signing the Articles of Incorporation in December of 1987. They then formed a eleven-member board who would govern the new Mid-Dakota Rural Water System, Inc. The members of the eleven-member board were Chairwoman, Susan Hargens, Orient; Vice-Chairman, Eugene Warriner, Blunt; Secretary/Treasurer, Warren Porter, Highmore; Duane Aymar, Miller; Gerald Gregg, Harrold, Johnny Gross, Onida; Orville Haiwick, Highmore; Gerald Kutzler, Huron; Donald Olson, Huron; Morris Simon, Gettysburg; and Kermit Wulff, Gann Valley. The Mid-Dakota project was expanded to include Potter, Buffalo, Aurora, Sanborn, Jerauld, and a very small part of Kingsbury counties. The entire project now covers a 7,000 square mile area or approximately the size of the state of New Jersey.

The water development district, a taxing entity, was instrumental in getting the Mid-Dakota project off the ground. In the beginning, they helped to lobby the state and federal government and furnished the office and staff that worked with the project's directors to get federal authorization and funding. There was confusion with the district and the rural water system having the same name, so the district changed its name once again to become the Central Plains Water Development District.

In 1992, the staff, Board of Directors and steering committee all worked to collect hookup fees ($500.00 for household hookups, $350.00 for seasonal and pasture taps, etc.) There were over 100 signup meetings throughout the area and all the information collected was sent to Mid-Dakota engineers, Bartlett & West Engineers, Topeka, KS, to be placed in a final engineering study which was hand-delivered to Washington, DC. After this, the Mid-Dakota Rural Water System project was authorized in a bill signed by President George H. W. Bush entitled P.L. 102-575. In 1992, the board also expanded their number to 13 members by changing the make-up of the board from eleven rural directors to ten rural directors, two municipal at large and one director from the City of Huron. Duane Aymar, Miller had previously resigned from the board so the remaining ten rural directors stayed on; Dr. John Carr, Miller and Gene Robbennolt, Gettysburg were the municipal at large directors; and Doug Fosheim was the director from the City of Huron.

After authorization, Mid-Dakota would have the funding to pay their staff so the district turned the staff over to the project and worked out an agreement where Mid-Dakota staff worked for the water development district board for a period of time. Central Plains Water Development District is now headquartered in Pierre and has its own separate staff. Staffing for Mid-Dakota has grown from a Manager and Secretary to a staff of 23 in 2012.

Construction on the Mid-Dakota intake began in September of 1994 and the water treatment plant commenced in March of 1995. It was first believed that the project would be completed within a six year period, but with funding below the requested amount on an annual basis, actual completion wasn't until the year 2006 (double that time). In the span of 18 years, a problem was identified and with cooperation of many individuals working on the local, state, and federal levels, a solution was found and Mid-Dakota Rural Water System is that solution.

Statistics about the Project:

Cost - Initially, the Mid-Dakota was estimated to cost $108.4 million dollars. The funding package that was procured with the authorization of the project was $85 million federal grant, $15 million federal loan and $8.4 million state grant.  Because of inflation, the numbers have risen and so did everyone's portion of the funding package.  The state paid the grant they committed to but not before it rose to $9.67 million.  The cost of the rural water system after completion was over $160 million dollars.

Water Source - Missouri River at Corps Bay north of Oahe Dam.

Area Served - Covering a land area of approximately 7,000 square miles including all of Hughes, Sully, Hyde, Hand, Beadle and parts of Potter, Faulk, Spink, Kingsbury, Sanborn, Aurora, Jerauld, Buffalo, and Davison counties.

Population - Mid-Dakota serves more than 31,000 people and is currently serving 16 communities as bulk customers, 2 community systems as bulk customers, 4,025 rural taps (includes individually served towns), 39 special user bulk customers, and 1,104 livestock taps.

Distribution - In 2012 the system had approximately 4,000 miles of distribution pipeline, 115 miles of mainline, and 16 constructed storage tanks ranging in size from 100,000 to 2,500,000 gallons for a total storage of 7,808,000 gallons.  A new 2 million gallon tank for the Canning Service Area was added along with the Redfield storage tank bringing storage capacity to 10,685,000 gallons.  The entire system has been installed using GPS and a state-of-the-art SCADA system allowing the monitoring of the entire Mid-Dakota system.

Treatment Process - The Oahe Water Treatment Plant uses technology called ultrafiltration consisting of submerged membranes.  It is designed to process 13.5 million gallons per day (MGD), in 2012 the average output was near 5 MGD.  Chlorine and ammonia are added to form chloramines, which is a longer lasting disinfectant.  Fluoride is also added to aid in fighting tooth decay.  The water has an average of 14.3 grains hardness and there is no softening of the water during the treatment process.  The average temperature of the water going in is around 47 degrees while the water leaving the plant is around 50 degrees.

Interim Board of Directors

	Earl Briggs 1987			Marilou Briggs 1987
	Susan Hargens 1987			Duane Aymar 1987

Original 11-Member Board of Directors

	Duane Aymar 1988-1992 Rural Director			Susan Hargens Past Chair 1988-1995 Rural Director - District 3
	Kermit Wulff 1988-1996 Rural Director - District 4			Gerald Gregg 1988-2001 Rural Director - District 2
	Johnny Gross 1988-2001 Rural Director - District 1			Orville Haiwick 1988-2003 Rural Director - District 3
	Morris Simon Past Chair 1988-2005 Rural Director - District 1			Donald Olson 1988-2005 Rural Director - District 5
	Eugene Warriner Past Chair Past Vice-Chair 1988-2005 Rural Director - District 2			Warren Porter Past Sec./Treas. 1988-2005 Rural Director - District 4
	Gerald "Buzz" Kutzler 1988- 2008 Rural Director - District 5

Past Board of Directors

	Doug Fosheim 1992-1993 Huron Director			Ron Volesky 1993-1996 Huron Director
	Gene Robbennolt 1992-1999 Municipal at Large			Henry Sinkie 1996-2004 Rural Director - District 4
	Lyle Zell 2003-2005 Huron Director			Dr. John Carr 1992-2005 Municipal at Large
	Tom Edgar 1995-2005 Rural Director - District 3			Wesley Wulff 2004-2007 Rural Director - District 4
	Dick Werner 2005-2009 Huron Director			Lewis Robbennolt 2001-2009 Past Chair Rural Director - District 1
	Leslie Brown 2001-2011 Rural Director - District 2