This summer’s hot weather is affecting the Grand Marais water and wastewater department. At the July 18, 2012 meeting of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Water/Wastewater Superintendent Tom Nelson said that the temperature of the water being drawn out of Lake Superior for the city went up 18 degrees in one hour one day when a breeze blew some warmer water into that area of the lake. The temperature went from 48 degrees to 66 degrees. The water/wastewater department regularly monitors the water temperature.
PUC Commissioner Karl Hansen asked Nelson what he knew about the recent closure of two beaches in the harbor due to high E. coli readings. Nelson said E. coli could occur naturally in coldwater from animals.
Commissioner Tim Kennedy updated the board on the biomass feasibility study currently under way regarding a biomass fueled district heating plant in the City of Grand Marais. He suggested that they consider looking into hooking the wastewater plant into the proposed system. Superintendent Nelson said they heat the building eight months out of the year and do it with electricity. Conserving electricity is one of the goals of the Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, the cooperative Grand Marais belongs to.
Claim regarding underground pipe
A claim against the city has resulted in Grand Marais resident Judie Johnson receiving a settlement of $809.02.
Johnson incurred this cost after having her yard dug up in part to deal with a perforated pipe that was believed to have been leaching sewer water into the ground.
Johnson originally brought the issue to the PUC, asking for a refund of several years’ worth of sewer bills she had paid, saying she had been told several years ago by the contracting company that worked on the sewer line running past her house that her pipe had not been hooked into the city’s sewer system. They supposedly hooked the pipe up to the city sewer line at that time.
The PUC consulted SEH, the engineering firm that had designed the project, and was told that Johnson’s pipe had been connected all along, but it was perforated. The city then sent a letter to Johnson directing her to connect the proper type of pipe to the city’s system.
Johnson hired a firm to install new pipe from her house to the street. When the ground was excavated, Superintendent Nelson saw firsthand what was really there. The correct type of pipe had indeed been connected to the city’s sewer system. A separate perforated pipe leading nowhere in particular was also found under the ground, functioning as non-sewer drainage. The information the PUC received from the engineers as well as the information Johnson had received from the contractors who had done the street work was wrong.
The city’s insurance provider, the League of Minnesota Cities, awarded Johnson the settlement for the cost she incurred in trying to comply with the city’s directive.
The City of Grand Marais is contending that the mistake was the engineering firm’s responsibility. The League of Minnesota Cities is now making a claim against SEH to recoup its costs.
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