The Senate’s Capital Investment Committee on Thursday reviewed proposals to provide funding for clean water and wastewater infrastructure upgrades in Blue Earth, Elysian, and Lewisville. The bills were authored and presented to the committee by Senator Rich Draheim (R-Madison Lake), who represents the three communities.
“Access to safe and clean water is one of the fundamental expectations that people have from their government,” Draheim said. “For small communities like Blue Earth, Elysian, and Lewisville, upgrading their water infrastructure is a daunting task, if not impossible to do without state support. By investing in these crucial infrastructure projects, we can guarantee that these communities have access to clean, safe, reliable water infrastructure.”
“That being said, bonds for these projects won’t be issued until summer, so our most urgent priority must be providing tax relief to Minnesotans,” Draheim said. “I talk to folks every single day who are still being squeezed by expensive daily life and high inflation. They are desperate for relief. With a $19 billion surplus, this should be our top priority.”
BLUE EARTH WATER TREATMENT PLANT
- Senate File 567 provides $7 million for the city of Blue Earth to make improvements to its existing drinking water treatment plant.
- The improvements include a reverse osmosis softening system that will significantly reduce the treated water hardness and minimize the community’s need for point-of-use ion-exchange water softeners and associated salt usage.
ELYSIAN WATER TREATMENT PLANT
- Senate File 1974 provides $3.5 million to the city of Elysian to build a new water treatment plant to treat drinking water for radium, manganese, and iron bacteria.
- Elysian does not currently have a water treatment plant. The proposed treatment plant will remove radium, iron, and manganese from the city water supply. Elysian is supplied by two active wells, one of which is not typically used because of issues with iron bacteria in the source water. The primary well contains radium levels exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL), and radium levels at the other well are very close to the MCL.
LEWISVILLE WATER AND WASTEWATER INFRASTRUCTURE
- Senate File 566 provides $6.75 million to Lewisville, a city with only 225 residents, for sewer, stormwater, and water tower improvements, including reconstructing roads and sidewalks associated with the improvements.
- The City of Lewisville is in desperate need of a new city-wide sewer and water system including road reconstruction due to the age and condition of these facilities. An analysis determined they are in extremely poor condition and need to be replaced as soon as possible.
- Lewisville recently paid to have a new wastewater treatment plant designed and constructed, but the plant did not work, the contractor went bankrupt, and the city lost nearly $3 million. In addition, Lewisville had to pay for the wastewater treatment plant to be redesigned and rebuilt the following year.