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2 Spring 2015 The City of Lake Elmo, per a 2014 Council Resolution, is working with nine Washington County cities and the Met Council to look at the future of water supply in the East Metro. The project, entitled “Washington County Municipal Water Coalition Water Supply Feasibility Study,” is a pro- active effort to understand the impacts each city has on groundwater availability and to look at alternative methods to deliver potable drinking water to residents. “In 2014, a few cities and Washington County met together to address possible outcomes for the East Metro based on the White Bear Lake draw down and the Metropolitan Council’s desire to examine the water supply issue. Out of these meetings it was decided that it was best to get ahead of the issue and examine the many facets of drinking water supply in collaboration with the Met Council rather than to wait for a regulatory outcome,” said Dean Zuleger, City Administrator. The Washington County Municipal Water Coalition and the Met Council will assess three main areas of water policy in the study. First, the study will look at the reuse of treat- ed effluent from pollution contamination well. This will include the use of gray water for non-drinking public and private uses, use of contaminated water for direct drinking use, and enhancing aquifer recharge using treated pollu- tion contaminated water. Second, the study will look at conjunctive use of surface water for drinking water supply. The study will look at using water from the Missis- sippi River, the St. Croix River, and interconnecting to the St. Paul Regional Water System for drinking water sup- ply. Third, the study will evaluate and consider alterna- tive sustainable water supply approaches that may be identified throughout the other parts of the project. “Since metro water supply will be the focus of the Met Council for the near future, we have also asked them to consider how they might provide a water use credit for communities like Lake Elmo, Oakdale, Woodbury and Cot- tage Grove that have water supplies that are contaminated by PFCs,” added Zuleger. The nine communities participating in the study are Wood- bury, Cottage Grove, Oakdale, Lake Elmo, Bayport, Oak Park Heights, St. Paul Park, Newport, and the City of Still- water Water Commission. The Met Council has hired the engineering firm Short Elliot & Hendrickson, and the study is expected to be completed in 2016. Lake Elmo Partnering with Nine East Metro Cities to Look at Water Supply II improvements. This approval is similar to the municipal consent ac- tion for Phase I that occurred on Feb- ruary 5. In order to gather more feed- back from adjacent property owners on the proposed improvements, the County and City held focus group meetings for the affected properties on March 5, 2015. At the focus group meeting, alternative designs were presented showing different options for parking and sidewalk facilities. The County and the City would like to thank those who attended the meet- ings, as valuable input and direction was received. Moving forward, the County and City will be presenting a recommended preliminary de- sign with alternatives at a future City Council meeting, likely in late April, for a municipal consent action. Once the City provides municipal consent, Phase II of the downtown project can also move into the final design phase. Ultimately, the project would likely go out to public bid over the winter of 2015/16. Should the County and City receive favorable bids for Phase II of the project, construction would begin in May of 2016. For additional updates on the project, both the County and City have a web page dedicated to ongoing updates and information. The County site can be found at the following link: http:// mn-washingtoncounty.civicplus.com/ index.aspx?NID=2127. The City site can be found at the following links: http://www.lakeelmo.org/downtown- project and http://www.lakeelmo.org/ phase-1-village-street-sanitary-sew- er-watermain-improvements. If you have questions about the proj- ect, please contact Frank Ticknor at Washington County, 651-430-4319, or Nick Johnson at City of Lake Elmo, 651-747-3912. Downtown Project Continued from Page 1 A Water Supply Feasibility Study will be conducted to look at alternative methods to deliver potable drinking water to residents.