Grand Marais Water/ Wastewater Superintendent Tom Nelson presented a timeline to the Public Utilities Commission
PUC) in which the wastewater treatment plant will achieve compliance with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) new mercury requirements by the spring of 2020.
Nelson addressed the commission at its Feb. 17 meeting. The timeline, said Nelson, must be submitted to the MPCA by July 2016 in order for the city to receive its yearly discharge permits.
Under the MPCA’s guidelines, by 2020 the city cannot exceed 1.8 parts per trillion of mercury in discharge from the wastewater treatment plant.
The PUC will send out requests to hire an engineering firm to complete and submit a facility plan to further reduce mercury in the effluent at the Grand Marais wastewater treatment plant for MPCA to review by December 1, 2017.
Once MPCA reviews the plan the consulting engineer hired by the city will submit construction plans designed to meet the new mercury limit standards.
To pay for improvements the city will apply for funding through the Minnesota Public Facility Authority, Clean Water Project Priority List by March 1, 2018. Nelson said the city could also pursue other sources for funding to help defray the costs, and City Administrator Mike Roth said because the costs are unknown—possibly topping $1 million—cost to the city could be onerous.
Construction is targeted to begin in the fall of 2018, with completion of the project scheduled for fall 2019.
If all goes well, Nelson said the Grand Marais wastewater treatment facility goal is to attain compliance with the new mercury limits by spring 2020.
Because the new rule is so stringent and will be hard to obtain, PUC Member Tim Kennedy suggested Nelson contact other cities to see if they would consider fighting this regulation. PUC Member George Wilkes questioned whether this was a state or federal regulation and Nelson said he would bring answers to those questions back to the board at the next meeting.
In other business, after reviewing a request from Bill Wold for a refund, the board agreed to take $979.45 off of his January water bill.
Wold wrote to the board stating the meter reader had discovered a leak in the pipes in the crawl space under his house. The solder joints in the copper pipes had separated and 103,100 gallons seeped into the ground under the house and not into the sewer system where it would have been treated. Wold explained that he and his wife had not been in the house since November. The board agreed that the Wolds’ request was reasonable and removed that portion from his bill.
Leave a Reply