HomeMy WebLinkAbout1980 01-23 St. Paul sewer improvements may be costly for Maplewood residents THE REVIEW St. Paul sewer improvements may
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Mayor John Greavu fears Maplewood Greavu commented. and rate of runoff to increase.
tv residents are going to have part of the Greavu said he also is irritated that Weaver said the study will establish
costs of improving St. Paul's sewer only the officials from Oakdale and alternatives and cost figures for
system "rammed down our throats." Maplewood were invited to the second eliminating flows to the Metropolitan
:\ Staff members and mayors of informational meeting. Other corn- Waste Management System.
✓ Maplewood, Oakdale and St. Paul met munities affected by the study are North
with Metropolitan Council represen- St. Paul, White Bear Lake, Roseville,
tatives recently to discuss a consulting Little Canada, Gem Lake, North Oaks,
firms'study initiated in January on area Shoreview, Vadnais Heights, Falcon
water runoff problems. Another in- Heights and Lino Lakes. These con-
formational meeting is set for Jan. 28. munities will be invited to the Jan. 28
St.Paul is concerned it is being charged informational meeting.
for treatment of surface runoff water According to Evans, Oakdale and
originating in northern and eastern Maplewood were asked to attend the
suburban municipalities. meeting because these cities will be the
St. Paul has a combined storm and first ones affected by Metro Council's
sanitary sewer system. Within the near change in direction.
future,it will have to go through the very Evans explained,"During the first part
costly process of separating its sewers. of 1979 we were under the impression that
Most surrounding suburban communities our drainage plan was acceptable. As a
already have separate sewers. St. Paul matter of fact the Metro Council had so
believes these cities should help pay for indicated it was okay in one of its
the separation of the capital city's sewers. publications.
St. Paul's sewers receive water over all of the sudden we found that
flows from Lake Phalen and Beaver Lake the"Thenunall'os staff was w
and their watersheds.Much of this storm against what they call an recommending review on a
water isPig treated t St.Metropolitan Sewer development project that Maplewood was
System's wig's Eyeet plant.eSt. Paul pays proposing.They said our storm drainage
for the sewer treatment. plan did not address the volume of runoff.
The study was initiated by the p"Metro Council saiaid we were con
trollingthe rate of runoff, but
Metropolitan Waste Control Commission, that
should becontrolling the volume -
which is part of the Metro Council. It iswell.
we
being conducted by a group of consulting
engineers from the metro area. The only way you can really control
volume is to not have any additional
"The results of this study can be ex- Evans said.
tremely important to us in both a finan- building,"The initial findingsof the water over
-
Evans,
and development sense," Barry flow studywill be completed in April,
Evans,Maplewood city manager said in a
memo to the communities affected by the according to Jim Barton, program
study. manager of the Local Planning
"This is true equally for the 14 cities Assistance Program at Metro Council.
involved, some of whom are not even The majority of the study work will be
aware of the study or the reason for it." finished by July. "We hope to have
Evans believes, "St. Paul has placed enough data for the Metropolitan Council
considerable pressure on the Metro to take action by October," Barton said.
Council to stop improvements in subur- The problem of water runoff has been
ban communities if the volume of runoff is growing during the past few decades.
to increase." Accordin to Weaver, Metro Council
He contends that the "problem was g
initially caused not by us (the surroun- chairman, "From a historical per-
ding cities) but by St. Paul,who blocked spective, many of the flooding and
the natural drainage with combination combined sewer overflow problems
sanitary-storm water sewers." currently occurring in the urbanized
Greavu and Evans are concerned that portion of the Metropolitan Area have
the study on where the storm water been caused by inadequate consideration
originates will"be done rather rapidly." of the increased amount of runoff as a
"What shakes me up is that the head of result of urban development.
the council, Charlie Weaver, has ap- "As land is developed, many of the
peared at these informational meetings areas that formerly detained or retained
twice.He doesn't normally come to any of runoff have disappeared. In addition,
these type meetings. This scares me. I increases in the imperviousness of the
think someone is really pushing this.That land surface through buildings, parking
council hasn't moved anything this fast," lots and streets have caused both volume
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