Grand Marais’ wastewater treatment plant has processed eight million more gallons of water in the last year than it did the year before, Water/Wastewater Superintendent Tom Nelson told the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) board on September 5.
Much of this is clean water that oozes out of old four-inch water lines throughout the city, Nelson said. Twenty-eight percent of the water that has been pumped into city water pipes recently has disappeared. It is considered “unaccountable.”
Saving the cost of producing the water that disappears each year would recoup enough money to pay for installing less than 100 feet of new pipe, Nelson said.
Sewer pipe saga settled
The city’s former engineering firm, SEH, has paid the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC), the city’s insurance provider, $809.02, the amount LMC paid Grand Marais resident Judie Johnson for unnecessary sewer work she had been asked to do.
SEH told the city that Johnson had a perforated sewer pipe leading from her house to the sewer line under the street outside her house. The city had consulted with SEH after Johnson asked for a refund on sewer charges for waste she said never made it into the city’s system.
The city directed Johnson to replace the pipe with one that was not perforated. She had her yard dug up only to discover that the proper pipe was already connected to the city’s sewer system. A separate perforated pipe leading nowhere in particular was also found under the ground in Johnson’s yard, functioning as non-sewer drainage.
Superintendent Nelson said SEH must have figured they did something wrong.
The city recently chose LHB of Duluth to be its new engineering firm.
Competition to reduce energy use
The PUC is looking into including on individual homeowner bills a comparison of energy use between the individual homeowner and a “peer group” of homes similar in size and electrical usage spikes and dips.
“Having these stats will hopefully motivate people to compete and do better reducing electrical use,” said City Administrator Mike Roth. It’s more of a psychological tool than anything.
Biomass study continuing
Moving further toward the development of a biomass heating plant in Grand Marais is looking promising, PUC Commissioner Tim Kennedy reported.
While installing piping to all downtown businesses might not be feasible, he said, hooking up the bigger businesses on the east side of town might be the way to go. The system would definitely include public buildings along County Road 7 such as the Cook County Schools complex, the Law Enforcement Center, and the Cook County highway garage. A possibility would be siting such a plant in Cedar Grove Business Park.
A meeting to discuss the grant-funded feasibility study will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, September 26. The location has not yet been determined.
They will not put the community at risk for something that wouldn’t pay for itself, Kennedy said, adding that in order to get bonds, the project would need to be on solid financial ground.
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