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Capitol View®
Tim Pugmire

Mound legislator demands action on sewer problems

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A Republican state lawmaker is blasting the Metropolitan Council after recent heavy rains recently forced his city to pump raw sewage onto the land near Lake Minnetonka.

Sen. David Osmek, R-Mound, said in a news release today that the Metropolitan Council “bears full responsibility” for the problem as the result of what he views as “misplaced priorities.”

“While they continue to find money for expensive and inefficient light rail trains, the Met Council has repeatedly ignored 10 years of requests to fix our vital sewer lines,” Osmek said.

Osmek also asked for a meeting with a Metropolitan Council representative to hear about the short-term and long-term plans to address the area’s sewer line issues.

In a separate news release today from the Metropolitan Council, officials explained that their regional sanitary sewer facilities were not the cause of the discharge. They said the spill was the result of the "inflow and infiltration" of storm water into the Mound municipal sewer system. Leisa Thompson, Metropolitan Council Environmental Services General Manager, said the problem needs to be addressed throughout the metro area.

“This is an unfortunate illustration of how rain water and groundwater entering the sanitary sewer system is a costly and messy adversary,” Thompson said. “Inflow and infiltration of clear water into local and regional wastewater pipes is not only a threat to public health and the environment, it also is waste of resources to have to treat otherwise unpolluted water.”