City Council Meeting Date: October 8, 2024
To: Mayor and City Council
City Administrator
From: Justin Wagner, Utilities Manager
David Bennett, P.E., Public Works Director/City Engineer
Title
Project update for the Water Treatment Plant Project (WATR2023-J34).
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council receives an update on the Water Treatment Plant Project related to plans and specs, funding and project schedule update.
Summary Report:
The City is in the process of designing a drinking water treatment plant to lower levels of manganese above a health-based guidance level that can cause learning and behavior problems in infants under one year old. Currently, infants should not drink tap water in Northfield.
Due to the elevated level of manganese in the drinking water, the City has worked through the design of water treatment plant while seeking outside funding sources to assist in paying for the water treatment plant that is expected to cost around $58,824,135. The City has applied for federal funding over the past three years. In 2022, the City applied for federal funding and was successful in having the project approved as a project. In 2023, the City again applied for federal funding and was successful in obtaining $3,945,000 for the design and construction of the water treatment plant. The City applied again in 2024, for an additional $29,505,000 in federal funding, however, the City was not successful in obtaining the federal funding. Additionally, the City has applied for low interest loans through the Minnesota Drinking Water Revolving Fund. The project costs are listed in the table below.
Now that the City is not receiving additional federal funding, the City is moving forward with the project. The project is being broken out into three separate projects. The first project is for the construction of the water treatment plant and infrastructure within on the water treatment plant site.
The second project is related to the federal...
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