Implementing a Major Conveyance Project to Meet Multiple Needs and Consider Various Competing Interests and Issues

The southeastern portion of the Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN metropolitan area has historically been served by two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). With past expansions, those plants had a combined average daily treatment capacity of approximately 49.2 × 103 cubic meters per day (m3/d) [13 million gallons per day (MGD)]. In June 2000, the Metropolitan Council (Council), through its Environmental Services Division (MCES), initiated a combined Master Planning and Facility Planning project for the service area for these WWTPs. That, and related planning efforts, resulted in recommendations to implement a series of major conveyance projects over several years and at a cost of more than 70 million. Those projects were designed to ultimately convey up to 227.1 × 103 m3/d (60MGD) of effluent from the expanded larger WWTP more than 21 kilometers (km) (13 miles) to allow discharge directly into the Mississippi River rather than continuing to discharge into the Vermillion River, which is adjacent to the WWTP. In addition, the recommendations were to phase out the smaller WWTP and convey the 17.0 × 103 m3/d (4.5 MGD) of wastewater projected to be generated in its service area to the larger WWTP.