Members of the Minnesota House Capital Investment Committee met with city officials in St. Michael this week to get more background on the city’s request for state funds to help with the replacement of the community’s existing wastewater treatment facility.
Representative Fue Lee, a DFL’er from Minneapolis chairs the committee. He says the city’s existing reed bed wastewater bio-solids treatment and processing plant was originally installed in 1996, and was expanded in 2001 and 2004. The design was considered to be state-of-the-art at the time of construction, but the new directive from the state and the MPCA will require a new facility with an estimated cost of 10 million dollars.
St. Michael officials have made the request to the state legislature to consider funding half of that amount as a part of a new bonding bill.
Representative Lee says the visit to St. Michael was an opportunity for members of the committee to get a first-hand look at the current facility and an explanation of what will be needed to replace the system.
Representative Eric Lucero, Republican from Dayton, and a member of the House Capital Investment Committee was among the local lawmakers that joined the bi-partisan group of state lawmakers that toured the current facility and met with St. Michael officials.
If funding is approved in the 2022 session, officials say work could begin next summer, with completion projected to be in the summer of 2023.
Members of the House Capital Investment Committee are on a 3-day tour of the northwestern region with visits in more than a dozen communities.
