The Little Blue Public Water Project serves over 284 Domestic, livestock and business hookups in eastern Thayer County and west and central Jefferson Counties, including the villages of Gilead and Gladstone.  Water is purchased from the City of Fairbury an piped through over 120 miles of buried lines to provide quality water service.

Low water availability and poor water quality were serious issues facing the residents of the Little Blue NRD's southeastern region.  Area residents had been exposed to poor water quality problems such as high nitrates, sodium, iron and sulfur with extreme hardness and odor present.  The need for a quality water source had become a major concern for the area.

The Little Blue Public Water Project was completed in 1976 with the objective of supplying continuous, quality water service to residents of the area.

The Little Blue Public Water Project - South provides water service to over 145 customers, many of who are in the area south of Fairbury, NE as well as just across the border into central Kansas.

Water for this Project is also purchased from the City of Fairbury and distributed to provide quality water to residents of the area.

Construction of the Little Blue Public Water Project South was completed in 1999.  Funding for the Project was made available through a grant from USDA Rural Development Water 2000 initiative in the amount of $1,067,900, a loan in the amount of $873,800, $116,550 in user fees, $30,000 from the existing Little Blue NRD Water Project and a Kansas Community Development Block Grant in the amount of $220,000.

The Rural Water Project is willing to accept new customers if they reside in rural areas of southeast Thayer or southwest Jefferson counties in Nebraska or northern Washington County in Kansas.   Please give the NRD office a call at (402)364-2145 if you would like more information. 

New connections to the Rural Water Project require the following:  Assure the Project has the pressure capabilities to serve the connection, issue a Benefit Unit Certificate to the new connections of which there is a cost of $1,500.00, and contract for line and meter installation which is charged back to the new connection.

The initial project construction is being re-paid by the users of the project, any costs associated with connecting to the rural Water Project since the initial loan was taken are charged to the new consumer. Thereafter their monthly bill for water delivered helps defray the cost of the Project to which they connected.

Contacts for the Little Blue NRD Rural Water Projects

Kevin Orvis, Projects Manager   (402)364-2145

  Paula Schultz, Billing   (402)729-3598