(LINO LAKES) – Lino Lakes City Council voted Monday to approve a $35,000 feasibility study into the possibility of building a new water treatment facility.
This comes more than a month after city leaders first notified residents about elevated levels of manganese in the city’s water supply. Manganese levels are not noted on standard state testing, but secondary, supplemental testing on wells done randomly by the state revealed the elevated amounts in three of the city’s four municipal wells.
State health officials told a crowd at a public meeting earlier this year that manganese is found at safe levels in all drinking water and even in most baby formula, but at large amounts of consumption at elevated levels there can be some health risks, especially for infants.
Some residents also expressed concern at the meeting over possible damage to water systems and appliances in their homes because of the higher amounts of manganese.
Now, the city will partner with the state and engineering firm WSB to determine whether it is feasible to build a new water treatment facility–with costs well into the millions of dollars–or if other options would be just as or more feasible, including purchasing water from another city or drilling more wells within the city.
“We would loook to Minnesota Department of Health and WSB to figure out where these secondary standards are heading,” said Utilities Supervisor Justin Williams. “Are we treating for three things and in five years, there’s going to be five contaminants that we need to be treating for?”
“Water’s one of the core essentials,” said Council Member Dale Stoesz at the meeting. “I appreciate all of the efforts (city staff) is doing for this and anything we can do along the way to prevent wasted work would be something we’d like to do.”
City planning leaders hope to have the feasibility study wrapped up by this summer.
