Contractors begin work on $43 million, 25-mile water pipeline to Cameron

An issue plaguing Cameron since its founding may finally have a resolution following the installation of a $43 million, 25-mile water pipe line  set to complete construction in 2024. 

Last week contractors laid the first link of pipe as part of what USDA officials considering the group’s largest rural Missouri project on record by making the Missouri River Cameron’s primary source for water.  

“This is the largest rural development project they’ve done in Missouri ... The first pipe went into the ground at 10 a.m. November 30th, 2022. We anticipate it will take two years and we will get the first water out of the pipe November of 2024,” Cameron City Manager Steve Rasmussen said. 

Although in the works for more than a decade, the projcet did not gain traction until a 2018 severe drought forced city officials to consider digging a temporary water pipeline to Poney Express Lake. In 2020, the Cameron City Council approved joining a group of municipalities in applying for an grant throught he USDA - as part of the newly established Grea Northwest Missouri Water Wholesale Commission. 

Last summer, representatives from the Cameron City Council, the Maysville City Council and USDA broke ground on the project. With Cameron owning 90 percent of the pipeline, Cameron residents will pay for a majority of the debt through an increase to business and residential water rates. However, the city council has not decided whether to raise the rates in one lump sum or gradually raise the rates. 

“You see it around the country right now. California has to plan on having less water. What we have is the benefit of solving our long term water problem. I’ve looked back on newspapers for 50 years. There have been stories about the drought this year or the drought next year and what to do about it. We’ve finally solved that problem,” Rasmussen said.