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Metropolitan Agencies <br />purpose of providing local communities with additional information and technical <br />assistance. <br />The Metropolitan Council's role with respect to climate change, as identified in the 2040 <br />regional development guide, should be focused on the stewardship of its internal <br />operations (wastewater, transit) and working collaboratively with local governments to <br />provide information, best practices, technical assistance and incentives around responses <br />to climate change. <br />Metro Cities urges the Legislature and/or the Metropolitan Council to provide financial <br />assistance for the preservation of regionally significant natural resources. <br />4-N Inflow and Infiltration (1/1) <br />The Metropolitan Council has identified nearly half of all sewered communities in the <br />metropolitan region to be contributing excessive inflow and infiltration into the regional <br />wastewater system. Inflow and infiltration are terms for the ways that clear water (ground <br />and storm) makes its way into sanitary sewer pipes and gets treated, unnecessarily, at <br />regional wastewater plants. The number of identified communities is subject to change, <br />depending on rain events, and any city in the metropolitan area can be affected. Another <br />19 cities have been identified as being near the threshold, or at risk, for contributing <br />excessive I/I into the system. <br />The Metropolitan Council establishes a surcharge on cities determined to be contributing <br />unacceptable amounts of I/I into the wastewater system. The charge is waived when cities <br />meet certain parameters through local mitigation efforts. <br />Metro Cities recognizes the importance of controlling I/I because of its potential <br />environmental and public health impacts, because it affects the size, and therefore the <br />cost, of wastewater treatment systems and because excessive I/I in one city can affect <br />development capacity of another. However, there is the potential for cities to incur <br />increasingly exorbitant costs in their ongoing efforts to mitigate excessive I/I. <br />Metro Cities continues to monitor the surcharge program and supports continued reviews <br />of the methodology used to measure excess I/I to ensure that the methodology <br />appropriately normalizes for precipitation variability and the Council's work with cities <br />on community specific issues around I/I. <br />Metro Cities supports state financial assistance for Metro Area I/I mitigation <br />through future Clean Water Legacy Act appropriations or similar legislation and <br />encourages the Metropolitan Council to partner in support of such appropriations. <br />Metro Cities supports continued state capital assistance to provide grants to metro <br />area cities for the purpose of mitigating inflow and infiltration problems into <br />municipal wastewater collection systems. <br />2016 Legislative Policies 45 <br />