Rick Bonander of Valley Springs talked with the Johnson family, also of Valley Springs at Annie’s Coffeehouse about running for the East Dakota Water Development District 4 open seat. He already serves on the Minnehaha County Conservation District. He’ll be on your June 4th ballot.
“Being on both boards is something that will dovetail pretty well together,” he said. “The East Dakota Water District is horseshoe shaped, Valley Springs, Brandon, Garretson, over to Baltic and Dell Rapids and then down to Hartford. Water has never been more important for our small towns and farms, and we need to protect it. Talking with people in the industry, our groundwater veins have only gotten narrower.”
Bonander has been a stalwart opponent of the proposed carbon capture pipelines. Though not pleased with the current state of things, he’s not giving up that opposition anytime soon.
“One thing that hasn’t got a lot of attention is that if these pipelines do get built and do get attached to our ethanol plants, they’ll need millions of gallons of water to cool their CO-2 by-product into liquid form, and that’s going to take more water out of the available supply for our towns, homes and farms. The plot only thickens. We need water for agriculture, dairy products, and just for drinking. All life is dependent on water and it’s a resource we must have and I am seeking your vote because I want to help protect South Dakota resources for South Dakotans. In an age where you have people in Arizona wanting to build thousands of miles of pipelines to the great lakes to serve their needs, we need to be on the forefront of protecting what we have and what we use.”
