Agenda Packets - 1989/02/06 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

minnesota department of health 717 i.e. deiaware at. P.O. box 9"11 minneapolls 554A0 16121623 WW MEMORANDUM DATE : January 20, 1989 TO : City CounciliTovm Board/Rural Water Supply/System Operator FROM : Gary L. Englund, P.E., Chief Section of Water Supply and Engineering SUBJECT: Report to the 1989 Legislature, Proposals for Alternative Funding for Water Supply Monitoring and Surveillance in Minnesota By way of this notice, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) wants to alert you to proposals that will be considered by the 1989 Legislature on funding for public water supply monitoring. As the owner and/or operator of a oub- Lcvislature's deliberations in this matter. The following is a brief sum- mary of the report including the costs that will be incurred by public water supplies as a result of the 1986 Safe Drinking Water Act (SOWA) amendments and the funding alternatives submitted to the Legislature by MDH to cover these costs. As the state agency responsible for protecting and monitoring public drinking water supplies in Minnesota, the MDR submitted a request to the 1988 Legisla- ture fnr support of a s;gnificantly expanded program, which included funding for 15 new positions and support for laboratory services. The funding request was based on 1) the need to provide greatly expanded monitoring of public water supplies due to the concern for the occurrence of many man-made chemi- cals in drinking water and 2) the federal 1986 SDWA amendments that require public water supplies to greatly expand the monitoring performed on their drinking water. The 1968 Legislature directed the MOH to report back to it prior to the 1989 session with proposals for funding the drinking water pro- gram in the future. Background There are 12,000 public water supply systems in Minnesota divided into three categories: community (1.000), nontransient noncommunity (1,665), and noncom- munity (9,305) systems. the noncomnunity systems require minimal testirg. However, conmunity (such as yours) and nontransient noncomilunity systems will be required to test for 83 contaminants compared to the 22 presently monitored. MDH has estimated that the annual average cost to each community and nontransient nonconmunity water system will be $830, with some systems incurring annual costs of up to $3,500 because of the highly variable monitor- ing frequencies. To fully fund the MDH drinking water program, including the an equal opportunity employer