When Rep. Scott Odenbach introduces legislation to restrict water rights, he doesn’t mention the impact on your property tax bill. But make no mistake—HB 1103 will have a direct and lasting impact on housing affordability that will drive up property taxes for current Black Hills residents, while doing nothing to protect water sources.
Here’s how it works: By artificially constraining water supply, you restrict housing construction. Less housing supply = increasing home assessments. Higher assessments = higher property taxes for everyone.
Last year, Rep. Odenbach sponsored legislation to investigate Black Hills development. His intention was to restrict all development. Fortunately, this effort was defeated. HB 1103 is another attempt for restricting all development: eliminate an obscure geologic exemption that gives the Black Hills some flexibility when accessing deep aquifers. We can’t build houses without water permits.
This is about pulling up the ladder. Odenbach has his property. He’s established. Now he wants to shut the door on everyone else trying to build a life in the Black Hills. But here’s the problem: this is a free country. We can’t stop people from moving to South Dakota. They’re coming whether Odenbach likes it or not.
So what happens when people keep arriving but we’ve strangled the ability to build housing? Either they bid up prices on existing homes (inflating your property taxes), or they resort to scattered development on individual exempt wells—exactly the outcome that’s worst for aquifer protection, water quality, and community planning.
HB 1103 does the opposite of what it claims. The bill says it protects water, but it will actually increase contamination risks. By making it more expensive and difficult to for regulated water systems to get permits, we push development toward smaller, dispersed clusters of private wells. These private wells are not subject to the same regulation and oversight. Water distribution systems serving 15 or more households must go through rigorous permitting and monitoring. Individual private wells don’t. By pricing regulated systems out of the market, HB 1103 pushes new development toward these unregulated wells—which is exactly the worst outcome for protecting our aquifers.
Current Black Hills residents should be furious. This isn’t about responsible water management—DANR already handles that effectively. This is about one legislator’s anti-growth agenda, not environmental protection; the end result will cost us all in higher property taxes and greater risk to ground water..
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