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Ad fuels debate over Waconia ballroom's septic system

One official says that an ad exaggerates the ballroom's capacity and that the county is looking the other way. Carver County says the facility is in compliance.

By HERÓN MÁRQUEZ ESTRADA, Star Tribune

Last update: October 8, 2009 - 11:19 PM

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The ad, aimed at wedding planners, business executives, conventioneers and others, promises an elegant and spectacular event at the Waconia Event Center for groups of 50 to 1,000.

The only problem, said Carver County Commissioner Tom Workman, is the Waconia ballroom, as it is commonly known, does not have the septic system to handle such large crowds.

"The system can't take that," said Workman, who says the actual capacity of the facility's septic system is about 500 in the ballroom and 100 in the restaurant.

The postcard ad is being sent out by Lancer Catering, which was hired by the county this year to operate the ballroom after it was purchased in hopes of turning it into part of the regional park system.

Workman said the county itself, in its request for proposals to operate the ballroom, estimated the capacity at close to 1,100.

"No one really knows the capacity of the ballroom," Dave Drealan, director of the Carver County Land and Water Services, said Thursday.

He said the County Board recently decided to install a meter at the facility to gauge how much water is being used at different times and by different events to see if an accurate picture of usage and capacity can be obtained.

Workman doesn't buy that, saying it is just one more instance of the county using a double standard because it owns the facility.

"I don't know another business in the county that gets to go to this length in overstating its capacity," he said. "I can think of no other reason than its affiliation with the county."

The capacity is but the latest controversy surrounding the ballroom as questions also have been raised by Workman and others about the legality of the decades-old septic system.

Workman believes the septic system does not have the proper separation between it and the water table, which could lead to pollution problems.

He submitted a complaint to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency last week. The MPCA acknowledged Thursday that it is looking into the matter.

State law requires at least a 36-inch separation between a septic system and the high water mark, and that is one of the issues that the MPCA is expected to look at in its investigation.

Workman says the gap might be as little as 23 inches, which would then force the county to replace the septic system.

The county, however, maintains that the system is in compliance and has been inspected, passed and certified by a licensed septic inspector, as required by MPCA statutes.

But Workman points out that the same inspector, Marty Ziermann, looked at the system last spring and found water at the 65-inch level.

Workman subtracted the height of the topsoil, distribution box and gravel trench from the 65 inches, and discovered the gap was 23 inches.

The county counters that Ziermann, who installed the system more than 20 years ago, did another measurement in July and could not find water even after drilling 73 inches.

Those numbers and that test, Drealan and other county officials maintain, mean the system is in compliance.

Workman is calling for an independent inspector to conduct another test to see where the water table is located.

Thus far, he has been outvoted 4-1 by the rest of the board.

Contacted Thursday, Ziermann initially said the difference can be explained by differences in ground elevation, but county officials said the drillings were conducted in the same general proximity and thus should have had roughly the same elevation.

"That was more than a year and a half ago," he said Thursday, though the most recent drilling was just three months ago. "Until I look at the numbers I'm not going to comment on nothing."

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