Used quarry water soon will become drinking water

The cities of Burnsville and Savage have joined Kraemer Mining in an innovative, $13 million project that could help bring more water to Twin Cities' southern region.

By JOY POWELL, Star Tribune

Last update: August 14, 2008 - 11:22 PM

Ten million gallons of surface water is discharged each day from a quarry in Burnsville into the Minnesota River. But beginning next summer, a project led by Burnsville, Savage and a private firm will convert 4 million gallons of that daily into drinking water for the communities.

That's why on Thursday there was hoopla near the river in northwest Burnsville, where local and state officials announced that the $13 million project under construction will provide water to Burnsville and Savage and have the ability to serve the wider region.

"It is significant because it is a private-public partnership between the cities of Savage and Burnsville, the state of Minnesota, and Kraemer Mining and Materials," said Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, who envisioned the project as far back as 1992.

Others were thinking along the same lines, she said, and it took help from all levels of government, including legislators, to bring the Burnsville Surface Water Treatment Plant project to fruition.

The project calls for drilling a pumping facility and building a transmission line for a water treatment plant. The plant walls are going up now, and on Thursday, Kautz led a dozen local officials in taking up shovels spray-painted gold for a festive ground-breaking ceremony.

"It will treat 4 million gallons of [quarry] water a day from the quarry that would otherwise be lost to the Minnesota River," Kautz said.

Now, she said, taxpayers won't have to foot the bill for costly new well-drilling.

Kraemer, which mines the quarry for limestone, put $3 million into the project, said David Edmunds, CEO and executive vice president of the firm, which will pump the surface water a mile to the plant.

The Minnesota Legislature gave $5.5 million in grants, and the two cities will split the remaining cost of $4.5 million.

Burnsville will install the plant and supply water to residents and businesses, Kautz said. The water will be paid for through usual utility fees.

Savage will pay $1 million capital costs this year and $1 million next for a connection fee. Savage will then pay for water and sell it to the community through utility fees. Next year, for example, the amount paid by Savage will be $650,000 under the long-term water purchase agreement.

"Nothing exemplifies our commitment to being naturally resourceful more than the Burnsville Surface Water Treatment Plant project," said Savage Mayor Janet Williams.

She lauded the partnership as "forward-thinking" in that it's looking to not only groundwater but surface water, too, for drinking. Williams said she believes water resources in the Midwest will become a bigger issue in the future, as they are now in the West.

"We'll have more water for days when the usage is at its highest, and at the same time, we'll be able to reduce our reliance on the wells that draw from the aquifers, from the Savage Fen, Burnsville Fen, and of course, our Eagle Creek," Williams said.

Expansion potential

Other cities could benefit in the project, which has room to grow.

"The water can be pumped to Lakeville or Eagan or somebody else, if it is appropriate," Burnsville Council Member Charlie Crichton said. "We do have pipes that go to Lakeville, for example, that could be used. If Credit River becomes a city and can't go down for water, they could conceivably buy from this supply."

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has long allowed Kraemer to discharge up to 4 billion gallons a year, a capacity that the firm is nearing. Edmunds said the firm wants to pump more water than is allowed under its decade-old permit.

"Years ago, we had long-term planning where we realized that the management of the water that we discharge was going to become a factor, and the efficiencies in our operations were going to be impacted by that," he said.

So the firm began looking for innovative ways to treat that surface water.

Enter Burnsville and other communities that need more water, local lawmakers and helpful officials from the state Health Department and Department of Natural Resources.

"This is a great day for all of us," Kautz said. "It's all too rare in public life that we find those elusive win-win situations. "

Joy Powell • 952-882-9017

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