SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO) -- With the Lewis and Clark water project nearing completion, the western side of South Dakota is hoping to get their very own water hookup from the Missouri River. Twin porn bills in legislature as one passes House During a hearing for the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources, Senate Joint Resolution 501 was one of the topics proposed to the legislature. The resolution signals legislative support for any future use water permit application by the Western Dakota Regional Water System (WDWDD) to be able to gather water from the Missouri River. The Western Dakota Regional Water System hopes to draw 20,765 acre-feet/per year of water from the Missouri River that will serve the western side of the state. SJR 501 unanimously passed the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources committee and now heads to the floor. Republican Sen. Helene Duhamel said water is life and nothing is more basic and important. "Ensuring access to clean available water is truly the role of government. In the 2024 session you may remember that the legislature overwhelmingly supported Senate Joint Resolution 502 which provided a water use application for the Lewis and Clarke Regional Water System," Duhamel said. "This session we are asking for that same support for the Western Dakota Regional Water System." According to the Western Dakota Regional Water System's website, Western South Dakota is currently experiencing rapid growth in population and water needs, both of which are expected to double in the next century. WDRWS Executive Director Cheryl Chapman said there will be another drought in South Dakota. "What we saw is that under average conditions, in the year 2050 the demand meets average water availability and would begin to have shortages and that's even without drought conditions," Chapman said. Chapman said the breakdown of payment isn't clear yet, but they will have many hands guiding the project. "We believe that it will be a partnership between federal, state and local funding. For example, Lewis and Clark who has been in business for over 30 years has had approximately 80% federal funding with 10% state and 10% local, whether or not that's the percentage we end up with, we aren't sure," Chapman said. Chapman said they are working on breaking down the cost analysis for the project. "Our initial estimates are $2 billion," Chapman said. "That will include the engineering design not only for the pipeline itself, but for the intake where we get the water from the river. We're evaluating a treatment plant and lift stations as we bring water uphill to western South Dakota. All of those components will be included in the final price tag of the project." Game, Fish and Parks Presentation Game Fish and Parks also gave a presentation during the committee meeting. GFP Secretary Kevin Robling said the westward expansion of zebra mussels is not a South Dakota thing, it's a United States thing. "There is a pretty straight line all the way from Canada to Texas where you can see that westward expansion. Clean, drain, dry has been our main emphasis through outreach and marketing efforts," Robling said. "The way zebra mussels are spread is through water and not just by users and anglers. It's water in general." Clean Drain Dry is an initiative to halt invasive aquatic species from spreading by cleaning off visible aquatic plants, animals, and mud from all equipment before leaving water access. Draining motor, bilge, livewell, and other water-containing devices before leaving water access, and drying everything for at least five days or wipe with a towel before reuse. Robling said in 2018 they did around 2,100 inspections adding that in 2024 they upped their inspection numbers to around 22,000. Robling also spoke on the lake clean-up efforts on McCook Lake. "Right now, we are putting together a request for proposal (RFP) looking at the scope for what cleanup would look like there, there is still a lot of submerged debris, there's sedimentation in places we need to remove in a sense," Robling said. "We're looking right now what the scope of that work looks like and will have a proposal out, hopefully within the next 3 to 4 weeks." Robling added they are hoping to start the cleanup project in March with them expecting the project to end sometime in June. Robling also spoke on the rising costs of hunting licenses saying that the wildlife division of the GFP is 100% funded through license fees. "We have not raised fees since 2014, so it's been 10 years. We have seen an incredible amount of inflationary cost, the price of doing business with everything and everybody in this room knows that," Robling said. "In that 10 years, we had to increase fees this last year with our commission. We increased fees 13% for the resident, 24% for the non-resident."