02-25-1985 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Metropolitan Council 300 Metro Square Bldg., St. Paul, Minnesota 55101 POSITION PAPER ON LEGISLATION FUNDING AN ACCELERATED STORMWATER AND SANITARY SEWER SEPAPATION PROGRAM in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area PROPOSED LEGISLATION The Council and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will ask the 1985 session of the Minnesota State Legislature to establish a state construction grants program to Provide financing for accelerating the separation of sewers in Minneapolis, St. Paul and South St. Paul that convey both stormwater and sewage. The program would provide funding to meet state and federal permit compliance schedules for eewer separation in the metropolitan area and also. funding for outstate communities to meet federal Clean Water Act requirements. An annual appropriation in the $40 to $50 million range will be requested. Of this amount, 2/5th3, or from $16 to $20 million, would be available to the Twin Cities Area for sewer separation, with 3/5ths allocated to the rest of the state to meet mandated federal water quality deadlines. The metropolitan area portion, plus a share of the state's federal construction grant allotment dedicated to sewer separation, would be matched dollar -per -dollar by the three cities with local funs over a five-year period. Total estimated cost for the sewer separation program, not counting regional facili'ies, is $214 mi],l,iun. WHY IS THE SEPARATION PROGRAM NEEDED NOW? ass:ceiwpi never. wormaiiy, the pipes convey the wastewater to the Metropolitan Waste Control Commission's Metropolitan Wastewater Treatment Plant in St. Paul for treatment. However, the interceptor sewers leading to the plant and the already huge plant are not large enough to handle heavy rain flow, so automatic bypass gates in the sewer system are ocened to divert the wastewater into the river. During a year with average raintall and snowmelt, an esti=ted 4.6 billion gallons of mixed sewage and stormwater pour into the river. It occurs, on the average, every three days during warm weather. Heavy rains also cause local street flooding and sewer back ups in homes in some areas served by combined sewers. -n n a wooers. na:ner, all sewage must receive treatment so advanced that 90 percent of the pollutants are removed prior to discharge into a water body. The combined sewer overflow discharges require a state permit acceptable to the federal government that acknowledges the violation but includes a mandatory plan and program to end the discharge. T,.e discharges can be eliminated by completing a storm and sanitary sewer separation program initiated by the cities many years ago, or by collecting, storing and treating all the combined stormwater and sewage. The Metropolitan Wastewater Treatment Plant currently treats 73 bil. Son gallons of wastewater annually. It now meets state and federal standards. 11 is was not