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Thursday, September 02, 2010
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| | Email this article • Print this article | LS Power and sewer plant officials near finalizing agreement
BY DENISE MARTIN
Three members of the Chisago Lakes Joint Sewage Treatment Commission will meet with LS Power officials this week. The multi-city commission is in the process of finalizing a pre-development contract with the electric facility builder and continues to dig deeper into the design of a system to use commission treated wastewater at the electric facility.
Sewage Treatment Commission Chair Mark Wolcott, Wyoming City liaison Russell Goudge and Joe Wishy, Lindstrom liaison, will represent the commission in subcommittee. They'll be joined by attorney Peter Grundhoefer, and CLJSTC staff to iron-out details on reimbursement to the commission for the work it's been doing with LS Power.
The company is seeking a way to use gray water normally stored and/or discharged at the treatment plant, to cool its electric station machinery. The sewer plant is a few miles south of where LS Power plans to construct its natural gas-fired, fuel backup, electric station in Lent Township.
Chuck Janski, CLJSTC engineer, told commissioners Monday this week that the upcoming meeting at the sewer plant will be a "first stab" at some highly technical issues facing the commission and LS Power. The supply of water, the method by which it could be transported, the discharge process back at the sewer plant and various other negotiations are pending.
Janski was estimating requesting $4,000 in future costs and an existing $3,200 already encumbered for CLJSTC staff time. The pre-development contract will require LS Power to deposit a sum for the commission to draw on as it works on designing a system. This was given approval to move forward and the chair is authorized to sign a pre-development agreement contingent on attorney okay.
In other CLJSTC business this week members received a summary of activity from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for the 12 month period.
The sewer commission had just five people attending the monthly meeting. No Stacy city official was there, one of two Wyoming representatives attended and the County Board liaison was absent. (There's nine commission members from Chisago City, Lindstrom, Center City, the county, Stacy and Wyoming. The representation is based on population.)
The PCA noted some minor violations in the contents allowed in the discharged effluent, which were explained by Mark Nelson, Plant Supervisor. Nelson said the phosphorus levels were a problem in late 2007 but are being controlled now. The PCA rolled the discharge reports into one 12-month "average" that didn't end until mid-2008. The facility is "well into compliance" now, Nelson added.
A chlorine level exceedence occurred during a disinfection process. And, a manhole on a rural part of the facility broke causing a "very minor" leakage of wastewater, which Nelson did report to the PCA duty officer.
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