ACHIEVING CONSENSUS – A SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION OF LEVEL OF SERVICE FOR ESTABLISHING MUNICIPAL PEAK FLOW STANDARDS

The Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD) provides wastewater conveyance and treatment services for municipalities and industries in the Duluth, MN metropolitan area. The District and its users are challenged by rainfall-induced sanitary sewer overflows. In attempting to come to grips with the problem and achieve consensus on whose responsibility it is to provide solutions, the parties have had to wrestle with the classic problems related sewer system capacity:How large should we build our sewers and treatment facilities?What is a reasonable goal for inflow and infiltration (I/I) reduction?When should capacity be increased and who should pay for it?The District recently completed a master planning effort to address system capacity issues and position the District for complying with a new National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit and the upcoming CMOM regulations. A major outcome of the master planning effort was the development of a concept for the level of service the District will provide its satellite communities. This paper describes an innovative methodology developed to define the level of service and how it is being implemented.