PARTIAL FUNDING FOR MOUND WATER TREATMENT PLANT APPROVED!

UPDATE MAY 23^RD:  The City of Mound has been included in the final bonding and project financing bills that passed the MN House and Senate yesterday and is headed to the Governor’s desk for signing!  Mound will receive $10.3M of the total $36M estimated project cost for a new water treatment plant in 2023.   This first tranche of funding will allow us to get moving on the full project design and some of the early-phase work and set the stage for future requests as we work to finish the project over the next multiple years. 

The project is also being sponsored by our federal representatives in the House and Senate under the Community-based projects (House) and Congressionally-directed spending (Senate) for an additional $4M in 2024 dollars.

We will have more work to do and several more years of funding requests to get the project across the finish line – but this first round of funding is a big step and a demonstration of commitment to clean water by the State legislature. 

Please remember to thank our MN Senator and Representative for their hard work on our behalf.  This was an extremely difficult request to fulfill in a year with considerable contention in St Paul and we are grateful for their advocacy and support!

Senator Kelly Morrison - Email: sen.kelly.morrison@senate.mn  Phone: 651-296-9261

Representative Andrew Myers - Email: rep.andrew.myers@house.mn.gov  Phone: 612-615-8444

The previous updates and links below provide insightful information to help you manage safe, affordable, and healthful drinking water within your household as we will continue to live with the manganese issues within our community through completion of the project.  This “Water News” tab will continue to be our clearing house for information as the project evolves and progresses.

March 3rd Previous Update: Council and Staff continue actively working to resolve the elevated manganese issues identified in our water supply. Our Engineers at Bolton and Menk have re-run the numbers for the proposed Water Treatment plant and due to inflation, supply chains, and market trends; the total cost is now at $36.4 million – making this project even more challenging for the City to fund.  We are actively working with Senator Kelly Morrison and Representative Andrew Myers to continue pursuing State funding for this crucial project.  Both Morrison and Myers are supportive of Mound’s need for a water treatment plant to remove the manganese from the water. 

More information regarding Manganese in water can be found at these Minnesota Department of Health web pages:

Manganese in Drinking Water (state.mn.us) 

Home Water Treatment (state.mn.us)

If you are interested in hiring a laboratory to test your water, a list of accredited laboratories can be found HERE. This testing would be at the requester's expense.