Don and Sarah Froelich, Belfield, were about to sell their dairy cattle before the Southwest Pipeline Project arrived.
In June 1995, high levels of sulfate contaminated Froehlich's water when seismographers hit their 100-foot shallow well. The problem, Don said, was they did not know their water was contaminated for approximately one month.
Construction on the Southwest Water Pipeline.
“I was sick, like the flu, for one month,” Don said, “It was so bad that I would have just as soon be dead than alive.” Froehlichs had quality water from the Southwest Pipeline Project at their house in town, but two miles south of Belfield, where the cattle are located, the water was contaminated. Don was working in the water all day, not to mention consuming it. “I went to the doctor, and he thought I had the flu...he said to drink more water...that just made it worse,” he said.
“We just assumed that our water was OK,” Sarah said, “The dairy inspector comes once a year to test it, and it always checked out fine.” Over a month's time, disaster struck the Froehlich's. The milk and cheese the cattle produced had a bad taste to it, and after 25 years of buying from them, their buyer in Beach would no longer accept it. Froehlichs began looking at every possibility. They took all the milk lines apart to clean them out and had the feed tested. Finally, they began dumping the milk. It was simply no good. Certain events happened that made the Froehlichs wonder: when it rained and the dam filled up, the milk seemed to get better. But one day when Don saw cows trying to drink each others' urine, he knew it was the water.
On July 1, the Froehlichs began hauling thousands of gallons of water daily from their house in town for their 200 head of dairy cows two miles south of town. They began looking at alternative methods to water their cattle - the well was completely ruined. Only then did they discover that there was no water table within a two-mile radius from their cattle. The cost to plumb water from the nearest well would be outrageous - $40,000 just to drill.
Froehlichs knew the Southwest Pipeline was on its way, so for six months, they hauled hundreds of gallons of water daily to their 200 dairy cattle, 70 of which they milk. On December 11, 1995, the Southwest Pipeline arrived.
The Froehlichs estimate they lost $50,000 in one month's time. “We lost cows, calves, threw away milk, milk production went down, cows aborted and many didn't breed back,” Don said.
If it would not be for the Southwest Pipeline Project, Don said, they would sell the cows. “Your land is absolutely useless without water...it's worth nothing,” he said.
The Southwest Pipeline Project is a positive example of Garrison Diversion MR&I funding providing a clean and reliable supply of Lake Sakakawea water for the citizens of southwestern North Dakota.
Reprinted and updated from “North Dakota Water” magazine.