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Hugo City Council Meeting Minutes for December 2, 2013 <br />Page 6 of 7 <br />that this difference is likely due to the different types of rebates offered and number of years the <br />program has been in place. <br />Haas pointed out that the loss in water billing revenue needed to be considered as well. <br />The rate payers will be paying into the utility fund to make up the loss. Other than the public <br />relations image, he questioned whether it was an advantage or disadvantage. City Engineer Jay <br />Kennedy explained that using less water would free up capacity to connect new users and <br />prolong the life of the current systems. <br />WSB Water Resource Engineer Pete Willenbring presented three specific projects in the City to <br />reuse storm water from existing collection ponds for irrigation purposes. Those projects were <br />located in the areas of Water's Edge, Beaver Ponds, and CSAH 8. Modeling assumptions were <br />made to determine if the system could get enough water and store enough water to irrigate, and it <br />was determined that up to 1 inch could be applied if irrigation occurred every other day. <br />Willenbring talked about Rice Creek Watershed District's new rules that give credits for <br />infiltration, which would save on the cost of building infiltration systems with new development <br />and road projects at the cost of $25,000 per acre of impervious surface. The City is working with <br />RCWD to allow for the reuse of storm water instead of building infiltration systems. Haas said <br />the City needed to keep the water and get the credits. <br />Pete provided his analysis of the three different projects and explained the next step would be to <br />design a system taking into consideration that it would need to be in compliance with the <br />Department of Health. It would also need to be determined who owns, operates, and maintains <br />systems. <br />Haas stated that it was financially possible and would reduce reliance on ground water. <br />The Council discussed the cost of water reuse, how it would affect the utility fund, and the long <br />term financial gain. Weidt pointed out that there would be changes in the mechanics of the <br />system since they would be going from potable water to storm water, and Willenbring provided <br />details of items that would need to be considered when designing the system. Klein said the <br />project along CSAH8 would be a City project and should be looked at first to determine how <br />well it would work out. The Council talked about the selling of credits to developers to pay for <br />the system. Petryk asked if these credits would ever expire, and Willenbring said it is likely both <br />projects would occur at the same time, but he would look into it. <br />The Council talked about the rebate program and felt the water reuse project would provide more <br />"bang for the buck" but the water rebate program would be easy to get started. <br />Willenbring suggested developing a written document outlining a draft program that highlighted <br />how all these issues would be resolved and have it reviewed by all involved with components in <br />the plan. <br />Weidt made motion, Petryk seconded, to direct staff to come back to the Council in two weeks <br />with a committee plan outlining who should be involved to work on issues relating to the rebate <br />program and details on how to move forward with the legislature and a bonding bill. <br />All Ayes. Motion carried. <br />