STURGIS, S.D. – The state of South Dakota began primary enforcement of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in 1983.
The South Dakota Drinking Water Program, part of Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR), develops and enforces the South Dakota Drinking Water Regulations that apply to public water systems in the state. Approximately 645 public water systems currently exist in South Dakota including in the City of Sturgis.
The program’s mission is to protect public health and the environment by providing natural resources assessment, financial assistance, and regulation in a manner that promotes a successful business climate and exceeds the expectations of their water users.
The City of Sturgis has supplied 18 consecutive years of safe drinking water to the public it serves and has been awarded the Secretary’s Award for Drinking Water Excellence by the DANR this year.
The city serves more than 6,943 customers an average of 878,000 gallons of water per day. Sturgis water comes from groundwater produced from local wells. The state has performed an assessment of our source water and they have determined that the relative susceptibility rating for the Sturgis public water supply system is medium.
The water quality report lists all the drinking water contaminants that we detected during the 2022 calendar year in the Sturgis water system. Sturgis Water Superintendent Todd Youngberg said the presence of these contaminants in the water does not necessarily indicate that the water poses a health risk.
The state requires the city to monitor for certain contaminants less than once per year because the concentrations of these contaminants are not expected to vary significantly from year to year, he said.
A copy of the Sturgis 2022 Drinking Water Report is available online at https://danr.sd.gov/OfficeOfWater/DrinkingWater/docs/WaterSystemMap/DWQPDFs/0321ccr.pdf
