NEW ULM – The New Ulm Public Utilities Commission (PUC) agreed to submit a wastewater treatment facilities plan to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) following a public hearing on the plan.

The wastewater treatment facilities plan was prepared by Bolton & Menk, Inc. as the first step in revitalizing New Ulm’s wastewater treatment plant that is already 50 years old. The plan prioritized a series of improvements, the first projects costing between $8 million and $10 million.

Kris Swanson of Bolton & Menk presented the project ahead of the public hearing. Swanson said they took a targeted approach, seeking short-turn improvements. The primary goal was to address aging infrastructure, plant optimization and future limits and regulations. The report would also help target funding sources to pay for improvements.

The report address six areas of the wastewater treatment plant: the Courtland receiving station; 20th street force main; flow and load equalization basin/ATAD expansion, blower improvements; control system and a solar energy system.

The Courtland receiving station was built in 1995 and receives raw wastewater from Courtland. It takes out garbage and filters items that cannot be treated. Swanson said raw wastewater is corrosive and the life expectancy of this equipment is 20 years, but the Courtland station is 30 years old.

“There is some needs for painting, replacing piping and replacing equipment,” Swanson said. If rehabilitated, and all existing equipment is replaced the receiving station could have another 20 years of life expectancy. If nothing is done, Swanson expected the Courtland receiving station to fail within five years.

The improvement cost for the Courtland receiving station is estimated at between $1.8 million and $2.3 million.

The 20th Street force main takes all wastewater from New Ulm to the treatment plant. This main was installed in 1972 and is constantly used by the city. Swanson said the longevity of the main is between 50 and 75 years.

“We anticipate this needing to be replaced in the short-term,” Swanson said.

For the 20th street force main, the city has multiple options. The first is rehabilitation, which is expensive and challenging. Swanson said Bolton and Menk was recommending creating a second parallel force main to the plant. With a second line, the city could shut down and conduct maintenance to the old line. In the future, the city could switch between the pipelines as backup and redundancy.

The 20th Street force main improvement is estimated between $3 million and $3.5 million.

The plant’s control system has exceeded useful life expectancy. Swanson said the utility department is already looking to replace the equipment as part of regular budget items. The improvement cost is estimated at $800,000.

The equalization basin/ATAD expansion was proposed to optimize biosolids production, but Bolton & Menk is recommending putting this project on hold. Swanson said new regulations involving forever chemicals are coming out that could limit how biosolids are place on agricultural land.

Swanson said they want to wait to see how this plays out before putting money in a biosolids system that could be obsolete if regulations change. This project is the most expensive of those proposed at between $45 million and $50 million.

The blowers that provide oxygen for organism eating waste products are also at the end of useful life. The existing blowers are from 1972. In the last 15 years some additional high efficiency blowers were installed. Swanson said these blowers are becoming rapidly obsolete with fewer staff servicing these device. Bolton and Menk is recommending providing multiple types of blowers for redundancy at the plant.

The blower improvements are estimated at between $6.5 million and $7.5 million.

A solar energy system at the plant was considered as a potential funding opportunity. However, Swanson said solar energy system was not practical at the wastewater treatment plant. Space only allowed for a roof-mounted system at the plant. It was estimated to take 25 years for the facility to pay back the cost of the solar panels through energy savings. The panels were only expected to have 15 to 20 years.

“It just doesn’t make sense in this case based on the amount of land available,” Swanson said.

The solar energy system is estimated at $3 million to $3.5 million.

Based on this report, Bolton & Menk recommended the public utilities prioritize the Courtland receiving station and blower improvements. The two projects would cost between $8 million and $10 million. Swanson said these project could receive funding Minnesota Pollution Control (MPC) and Public Facilities Authority. One of the goals is to submit the projects for federal considerations.

“It is necessary,” Commissioner Kim Williams said. “We don’t want any breakdowns.”

“It is the least fun piece of infrastructure as city has,” Swanson said. “It is part of the clean water, enjoying lakes and rivers; it is about cleaning up waste water.”

Commissioner Darrin Buegler said if there was a plan for a rate increase for these projects.

New Ulm Utilities Director Kris Manderfeld said part of this will be funded by what utilities has already budgeted, but a rate study will be done this year. There is no immediate plan to raise utility rates, but that could happened following this year’s rate study.

Williams made the motion to accept the plan and submit it to MPCA. It was unanimously approved by the commission.