Regional wastewater treatment: an environmental success story

Forty years ago, the Minnesota Legislature laid the foundation for one of the great environmental successes in our region – it authorized the creation of a regional wastewater collection and treatment system for the seven-county metro area.

This legislation was a topic of heated political battles for several years in the late 1960s, and was enacted only after the newly created Metropolitan Council added its support in the 1969 session.

At the time, the municipal sewage treatment system operated jointly by Minneapolis and St. Paul was inadequate to meet the needs of developing suburbs.

Newer suburbs that could not gain access were struggling to build waste treatment plants of their own. Inadequately treated waste was being dumped into the Mississippi River, Lake Minnetonka and other regional waterways. And the region's groundwater was being contaminated by failing septic systems.

The new regional system inherited 33 municipal treatment plants, only four of which were capable of providing adequate treatment. Within a decade, 21 of these plants were closed and four new plants were built.

Along with continual improvements in regional treatment plants, we embarked on a sewer separation program in Minneapolis, St. Paul and South St. Paul that greatly reduced the overflow of untreated waste into the Mississippi River during major storms.

Today, our region is served by a system of seven regional treatment plants and 600 miles of regional interceptors serving more than 100 communities. It regularly wins national environmental awards while helping to maintain rates significantly below those of similarly sized systems.

Our wastewater system is a shining example of how regional cooperation can solve regional problems, save tax dollars and enhance our region’s quality of life.

Peter Bell

April 2009