10-07-86 CCM - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL MINUTES OCTOBER 7, 1986 PAGE 3 show them these land values the commissioners came up with and ask them to concur in those amounts. If they agree, then the grant will be increased to participate in that land acquisition to the same percentage as they did for the $125,000 that was already approved. Has the Council made any determination as to how the City will handle failure of systems either unreported, not known now, failing, or which will fail in the future? Morgan answered if we are aware of the problems, we will enforce our codes the best way we can. We will first insist that the owners repair those systems and if they refuse to repair them, then we will go in and repair the systems at the owners' expense. Is significant commercial development going to be impaired by the inability to treat large volumes of waste? Morgan answered that is a matter of the Comprehensive Plan and reality. The City of Lake Elmo at the present time does not have a central sewer system and it is unlikely that we will be getting one. There is almost no possibiity that we could ever get federal funding for bringing in a central sewer system or building our own plant. In the event that we would, the land that would have to be taken for the sewer from people would far exceed the land and cost we are taking today. It would totally change the complextpn, of the City of Lake Elmo. Today, we do not have the services in any area, except Section 32-33, to handle any development that would require such a large system. Has the Council made a conscious decision to limit growth by means of not installing a municipal sewer and water treatment plant or by providing access to existing neighboring systems? Morgan, speaking for himself, felt that the Council has not made a decision to limit growth by not trying to install a central sewer system, but is just facing up to reality that the possibility of getting a sewer system is not very likely and we are zoning and planning accordingly. Armstrong added that even if we want a system, there is no room for Lake Elmo to be included in the Metropolitan system. Bohrer responded that there are only two ways to serve this area with metropolitan sewer. There is an existing interceptor that goes to the metro plant and this ends at the intersection of 94 and 694. That pipe was sized back in the 1960's for only a certain area of Woodbury, Oakdale and Lake Elmo. There is a certain amount that is reserved in that pipe for Lake Elmo which was set aside for Section 32 and the landowners were assessed for that so there is no excess capacity in that pipe. If it were to be served with the Pig'sEye Plant, there would have to be another interceptor built or an increase in size of that existing one. Another alternative would be to upgrade an existing wastewater plant in Cottage Grove and run a new pipe north through Cottage Grove through Woodbury and into Lake Elmo. Neither of these two are feasible, because the need does not appear to be there. Recently, the Metropolitan Council has taken the position that there is enough sewered land already in the east part of the Metro that is not developed yet, and they feel that those areas should be infilled before new interceptor areas are expanded further. The City of Wyoming, Minnesota which has a population of 1,800 have their own sewer disposal plant done by TKDA. What is the difference between Wyoming and Lake Elmo? Bohrer replied that the type of system that Wyoming has is a sanitary type sewer that goes into a sewage