Jill Schramm/MDN The Northwest Area Water Supply’s biota treatment plant near Max, shown Saturday, is nearing completion.

With the first phase of a biota treatment plant near Max nearing completion, the North Dakota Department of Water Resources is planning a series of intake phases to supply the plant and the Northwest Area Water Supply project with water.

Supply chain issues, including an 18-month delay for certain items, is putting a drag on plans to establish a temporary intake at Lake Sakakawea. Completion of a temporary intake has been pushed back from the end of this year into next year, said DWR Director Andrea Travnicek.

“So we are a little further behind than where we would like to be, but I think we’ve got a good strategy, working with all of our partners, to try to just continue to move forward,” she said.

“We are getting close to substantial completion of the biota water treatment plant,” she added. “We are trying to figure out how we can get water to it temporarily, so we’re working with the City of Minot right now and others to see if we can use some of the aquifers for that.”

Access to Sundre aquifer water would enable the biota treatment plant to get up and running and work out any bugs to be ready to fully operate once the temporary intake is completed.

Meanwhile, a permanent intake at the Snake Creek Pumping Station at Lake Sakakawea is in the design phase. Travnicek said her department will be working with the Army Corps of Engineers on permitting this summer, with the potential for bidding pieces of the project at the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

Travnicek said the timeline still hinges on whether there are more supply chain issues or unexpected construction delays.

Phase one of the biota treatment plant should be done this fall, providing a capacity of nine million gallons per day. Phase two would expand the plant to provide up to 24 MGD.

The City of Minot will be operating the biota treatment plant.

The Northwest Water Supply (NAWS) is a $440 million regional water supply system that began construction in 2002. It will provide pretreatment at the biota plant and full treatment at the Minot Water Treatment plant. Most of the pipelines, booster stations and other infrastructure are already in place. NAWS could be fully constructed by 2029, Travnicek said.

“Then the operation and maintenance is going to continue to be the discussion,” she said.