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Feasibility Study <br />Water Treatment Plant <br />City of Lino Lakes, MN <br />WSB Project No. 015822-000 Page 16 <br />The costs associated with this option were analyzed in detail by the Metropolitan Council in the <br />Feasibility Assessment of Approaches to Water Sustainability in the Northeast Metro report from <br />December 2014. The report considered expansion of the SPRWS supply, treatment, and <br />distribution systems to serve Northeast Metro communities. To serve the City of Lino Lakes, <br />significant transmission watermain and a booster station would need to be installed in the City of <br />Shoreview, in addition to upgrading SPRWS’ supply and treatment capacity. This service would <br />likely only be feasible in the context of providing regional water supply to multiple cities in the <br />northeast metro area. The total cost to serve the communities between SPRWS and Lino Lakes <br />(Phase 1) and the communities neighboring Lino Lakes (Phase 2) was estimated to be $576 <br />million in this report. <br />Although this option would relieve the City of obtaining groundwater appropriations, operating its <br />well houses, and implementing treatment, it has several disadvantages. The City would relinquish <br />control of its water quality to others, the City would relinquish control of a portion of its water rates <br />to others, and the SPRWS surface water sources may be impacted by emerging contaminants or <br />hazardous material spills in the future. Most notably, the City’s existing water rates would <br />increase in order to cover the costs of both purchasing wholesale water from SPRWS and <br />maintaining the existing water distribution system (such as the water towers, watermains, <br />hydrants, and meters) within the City. Although this option could provide benefits to the City of <br />Lino Lakes, the extremely high estimated cost to extend service to the northeast metro area from <br />SPRWS is not feasible at the time of this study and would likely take many years to implement. It <br />would also require several Northeast Metro Area communities to agree and collaborate on this <br />option to make it even remotely feasible. <br />Purchasing treated water from the neighboring cities of Blaine, Shoreview, or Circle Pines or <br />untreated water from Hugo, White Bear Township, or Centerville was not evaluated as a feasible <br />option for this study. These cities’ systems are designed for their water demands alone, and they <br />do not have the sufficient water supply and treatment capacity to supply Lino Lakes’ current and <br />future water demands. <br />5.3 Implement Treatment <br />The third option analyzed was to implement municipal treatment to treat the City’s wells for <br />manganese and iron. A municipal water treatment plant would be constructed with sufficient <br />capacity to meet the City’s water demands through at least Year 2040 and designed for future <br />expansion if needed. In addition to the health effects caused by manganese, the ongoing <br />maintenance problems associated with manganese and iron will continue until these <br />contaminants are properly treated and removed from the City’s raw water supply. Manganese <br />and iron will continue to stain laundry and plumbing fixtures. Manganese and iron will continue to <br />precipitate inside the City’s elevated water storage tanks and dead-end watermains and require <br />ongoing maintenance. The City will need to continue spending approximately $50,000 per year or <br />more on polyphosphate which does not physically remove manganese and iron from the raw <br />water supply. Delaying treatment of manganese will result in continued consumption of <br />manganese that exceeds the recommended levels for infants, children, and adults in addition to <br />continued inefficiencies and wasting of resources (examples: excessive use of chemicals and <br />water used for flushing watermains). Constructing a municipal water treatment plant would <br />address the City’s manganese issue.