City Council Meeting Date: February 20, 2024
To: Mayor and City Council
City Administrator
From: Cole Johnson, Water Quality Specialist
Sean Simonson, Engineering Manager
Justin Wagner, Utilities Manager
Title
Consider Approving the Stormwater and Water Conservation Education and Outreach Contract with Clean River Partners.
Body
Action Requested:
Northfield City Council adopts a Motion approving the attached contract with the Clean River Partners (CRP).
Summary Report:
The City of Northfield is authorized to discharge stormwater associated with the small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4) permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). Under the provisions of the NPDES stormwater permit, the City has developed a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) approved Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP). This SWPPP includes implementation and reporting activities identified in the SWPPP as “Best Management Practices” or BMP’s. Included among these BMP’s are six (6) Minimum Control Measures (MCM’s) the permittee (City of Northfield) must incorporate into the SWPPP. This contract serves to satisfy the requirements from MCM (1), Public Education and Outreach, and MCM (2), Public Participation/Involvement.
Both MCM 1 and MCM 2 are aimed at informing and engaging residents, businesses, and industries in Northfield of measures that can be taken to reduce the volume of stormwater and stormwater related pollutant loading to area waters. The City has contracted with the Clean River Partners (CRP) (formerly Cannon River Watershed Partnership) since 2013 to assist with these conditions of the permit.
Additionally, the City has contracted with Clean River Partners since 2021 on Water Conservation Education. The Stomwater Education and Outreach Contract and Water Conservation Education Contract have typically been housed separately but the contracts were combined this year for formality purposes. The Water Conservation Education Contract serves to educate residents on practices to reduce water consumption via a variety of media sources including workshops, newspaper articles, and videos produced by CRP. The activities provided by the Water Conservation Education Contract are not required by permits issued to the City but it helps meet goals identified in the City’s Wellhead Protection Plan.
The proposed contract is a 1-year contract for the 2024 calendar year. CRP activities are listed in Exhibit 1 of the proposed contract (Attachment 1). There are not any notable changes from 2023 for the proposed 2024 contract besides the merging of the Stormwater Education and Outreach Contract and the Water Conservation Education Contract.
Alternative Options:
The City could manage this program with in-house staff, which would take staff time away from the four (4) remaining MCM’s that were found to be lacking as part of the 2014 MPCA Audit. Staff is not recommending this approach.
Financial Impacts:
The total cost for the contracted service is $24,374.00 for the 2024 calendar year, $18,854 of which will be funded by the Stormwater Utility Enterprise Fund and $5,520 of which will be funded by the Water Utility Enterprise Fund as defined by the included Scope of Services within the Contract.
Tentative Timelines:
With the approval of the contract, activities will be ongoing throughout the 2024 contract term.