An official website of the POLICY 9: Wastewater service area
This policy states:
The Met Council will plan for and provide wastewater service corresponding to designated land uses to protect water for public health, recreation, habitat, and environmental health.
The region needs high-quality, affordable, and sustainable wastewater collection and treatment services to prosper and grow. The Met Council collects and treats wastewater for nearly three million people in the region, as well as for institutions, businesses, and industries. Our water resource recovery facilities and the regional wastewater system serve the urban and suburban core of the region. Rural areas with their own wastewater infrastructure make significant investments to serve their communities. Both the Met Council and those rural communities plan and work to best utilize those investments.
Urban Service Area
The Urban Service Area has the highest level of investment in regional and local services, including regional wastewater services. These communities include a variety of residential neighborhoods, housing types, and densities, along with a varying mix of commercial and industrial areas. The Urban Service area is divided into four community designations: Urban, Urban Edge, Suburban, and Suburban Edge.
Rural Service Area
The Rural Service Area represents a range of uses including cultivated farmland, vineyards, hobby farms, gravel mines, woodlands, small towns, scattered and clustered housing, open spaces, and significant expanses of the region's natural resources. Investments in regional services are limited in the Rural Service Area, except for in the regional parks system. The Rural Service Area recognizes the desire for rural and small-town residential choices and protects the vital agricultural lands and natural amenities of the area. The Rural Service Area is divided into four community designations: Agricultural Area, Diversified Rural Area, Rural Residential, and Rural Center.
While supporting efficient development, wastewater service will be extended as necessary to facilitate development in communities if the community’s request for regional service is aligned with the regional Wastewater System Plan, the community’s comprehensive plan, and comprehensive sewer plan, and adheres to other Met Council policies. We know what we do on the land impacts our water resources, so we work closely with our communities to plan for growth that is efficient and utilizes the infrastructure and investments already in place.
It will be important to continue thoughtful partnership and planning for regional wastewater services for both urban and rural areas as the population and industry grows in the region and as we see changes to our environment from climate change.
Desired outcomes
- Wastewater services are provided to support orderly and economical development and redevelopment of the region.
- Long-range planning of regional wastewater service supports source water protection, equitable water outcomes, water and ecosystem protection, public health, sustainable growth and development, and infrastructure investments that are aligned with community comprehensive plans.
Actions
The Met Council’s water-related roles include partnering with a wide range of entities, planning for water sustainability, and providing regional services. Read more about the Met Council's roles.
Wastewater Service for the Urban Service Area
a. Utility corridors will be preserved when it is necessary to expand facilities or locate new facilities needed to implement the Wastewater System Plan through early land acquisition and work with communities, Tribal Nations, and other stakeholders.
b. All communities, and any areas within communities, planned to be served and currently served by the regional wastewater system remain a part of the system to fully utilize the regional investments made to provide that service.
Wastewater Service for the Rural Service Area
l. Work with communities, Tribal Nations, and other stakeholders to preserve areas outside the Long-Term Wastewater Service Area for agricultural and rural uses, while protecting significant natural resources, supporting groundwater recharge, protecting source water quality, and allowing limited unsewered development.
Wastewater Service for the Urban Service Area
c. Requests for additional wastewater service must be submitted to the Met Council through the comprehensive plan and comprehensive sewer plan process.
d. Connection of private communal treatment systems or properties with subsurface sewage treatment systems to the regional wastewater system must be consistent with the Met Council’s minimum sewered residential density requirements for each type of system.
e. The cost of connecting existing private communal treatment systems or subsurface sewage treatment systems to the regional wastewater system will not be borne by the Met Council.
f. Regional wastewater system improvements will be staged, when feasible, to reduce the financial risks associated with inherent uncertainty in growth forecasts.
g. Unsewered areas inside the Long-Term Wastewater Service Area will be preserved through guiding land use for future development that can be sewered economically.
h. Support existing regional sewer investments in developing and redeveloping areas by ensuring the type, size, minimum density requirements, and area of development be consistent with the original design capacity.
Wastewater Service for the Rural Service Area
m. Rural wastewater treatment plant acquisition requests and connections to the regional wastewater system outside the regional service area will not be allowed unless the community amends its comprehensive plan and comprehensive sewer plan to be consistent with requirements for regional sewer service. The Met Council may construct capacity to serve the long-term needs of the rural and agricultural planning areas but will not provide service until the comprehensive plan requirements are met.
n. The Met Council will acquire wastewater treatment plants owned by communities – based upon their request through the comprehensive plan and comprehensive sewer plan processes and after soliciting customer input and conducting a public hearing on the request – if the requested acquisition provides cost-effective service, accommodates assigned growth, protects public health and well-being, and currently meets or, with improvements by the community can meet, environmental and regulatory requirements.
Wastewater Service for the Urban Service Area
i. Provide wastewater service commensurate with the needs of the growing metro region in a sustainable manner.
j. Provide sufficient capacity in the wastewater system to meet the growth projections and long-term service area needs identified in approved local comprehensive sewer plans.
k. Extend wastewater service to suburban communities if the service area contains at least 1,000 developable acres and guides residential land use densities consistent with Met Council policy.
Wastewater Service for the Rural Service Area
o. Wastewater service to a Rural Service Area will be considered only when all the following criteria are met:
- The community accepts the Met Council’s growth forecasts, as well as preserves at least 1,000 developed or developable acres for growth through the land use planning authority of the county or adjacent township(s) or through an orderly annexation agreement or similar mechanism to provide for staged, orderly growth in the surrounding area.
- The community has a water supply plan approved by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
- The community has a watershed-approved local surface water plan.
- The community has adequate transportation access.
- The community lies within the Long-Term Wastewater Service Area.
- Cost-effective service can be provided and there are feasible and economical options for siting and permitting an expanded wastewater treatment plant or for extending interceptor service.
- The Met Council has sought customer input, has conducted appropriate financial analysis, and has conducted a public hearing on the community’s wastewater service request.
p. Require that, if the most economical and beneficial wastewater service option is to construct a regional interceptor to serve the community, the Met Council will not acquire the community’s wastewater treatment plant, and the community will be responsible for decommissioning its treatment plant.
