Annandale residents won’t even notice when the city’s new sewage treatment plant begins operating sometime soon. But the startup will mark the end of a long struggle to build the facility, and it will ensure the city has enough treatment capacity for new development for years to come. The plant sits on about seven acres along County Road 7 at the junction of County Highway 105 in Albion Township. It’s about 91/2 miles southeast of the center of Annandale, and it’s surrounded on three sides by tall corn. Known as the Annandale-Maple Lake-Howard Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant, it’s a shared endeavor among those neighboring cities, but Annandale will be the first in line when it comes on stream. Project manager Brad DeWolf of Bolton & Menk engineers has estimated that will be in mid-September, depending on how the equipment checks out in testing that’s been going on for a few weeks. Howard Lake, where work was continuing on the lift station and forcemain to the plant, will follow Annandale by late fall. It could be spring before Maple Lake comes on stream, DeWolf said, because it has to do some rerouting of pipe within its own collection system. When the day does arrive, the Annandale lift station will pump about 250,000 gallons of wastewater a day to the plant, DeWolf said, but Annandale householders won’t be aware of any difference. Some, like former mayor Marian "Sam" Harmoning, will remember that nearly seven years have gone by since the October 2002 decision by the Annandale and Maple Lake councils to build the plant together. Annandale had been looking into building its own plant before that. "This thing was a long time coming," Harmoning, who with former Maple Lake mayor Mike Messina led the effort to get the plant built, said last week. "If there was a roadblock to be put in front of us, we made certain to run into it. "It would’ve been hard to wait all those years for a project that wasn’t this important," she said. "I’m just very gratified that we persevered and got it built when we got it built." Cities reaching their treatment capacity in today’s slow economy might not have the money to build a new plant, she said. "We had some challenges we went through in getting there," DeWolf understated. He credited the unified leadership of the Annandale and Maple Lake councils with keeping the plant on track. The project has encountered and eventually overcome numerous obstacles since late 2002. Area and downstream landowners opposed the location in a permit hearing before the Wright County Planning Commission in 2003 and in the Minnesota Court of Appeals the next year. Early in 2005, the court upheld the commission’s decision to grant a permit and its requirement that the cities build a pipeline to carry plant effluent to the North Fork of the Crow River. Later that year the Court of Appeals reversed the plant’s discharge permit in a challenge by the St. Paul-based Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy under the federal Clean Water Act. While the plant waited on the drawing board, the Minnesota Supreme Court took over a year to reach a decision in the case, which had taken on statewide implications. It restored the permit in May 2007. Di-Mar Construction began building the plant in August 2007 while Kuechle Underground installed about 13 miles of forcemain from the cities to the plant. Howard Lake bought into the partnership in May 2008, and LaTour Construction is building its lift station and forcemain. What started out costing $9.2 million for the plant alone is now estimated at $21.5 million with the addition of lift stations, forcemains, the pipeline to the river, plant upgrades and more than $5 million for the Howard Lake lift station and forcemain. And Annandale and Maple Lake spent more than $100,000 on court costs. When construction began, the plant was expected to be completed in about 18 months by early this year, but additional work related to Howard Lake coming on board has pushed the date back, according to DeWolf. Workers were putting the finishing touches on it last week, planting dozens of trees atop a berm to shield a view of the plant from CR 7 and building a nine-foot, barb-wire-topped fence around the perimeter. The facility will be an improvement environmentally over Annandale’s system of settling ponds and spray irrigation, DeWolf said, and it’s state-of-the-art in its ability to remove pollution. Di-Mar superintendent Mark Nystedt, who has directed plant construction, added it will leave the treated water cleaner and less polluted than the river water it will be discharged into. And the plant won’t emit smells to bother people living in the area. When Howard Lake and Maple Lake join Annandale, flow will probably reach about 650,000 gallons a day at the plant, which has a capacity of 1.18 million gallons daily, DeWolf said. But because of the way that’s calculated, it’s significantly less than half capacity, he said. "There is definitely room for growth." The plant prepares Annandale and the other cities for any growth that lies ahead, according to DeWolf, Harmoning and others. "The facility’s going to pay off in the years to come," DeWolf said. The cities have a "state-of-the-art new facility that will allow all the communities involved to grow into the future." As it is, "we can take on at least another 500 to 600 (homes), and that’s a conservative estimate." It’s anybody’s guess how the housing market will go, but DeWolf said that amount of treatment capacity could last 20 years. "The plant’s designed for not only the current population, but we can expand it for growth in the communities," he said. There’s enough land at the site to easily expand the plant to deal with future growth and regulations. It prepares Annandale for growth decades ahead, Harmoning said. "We are ready to accept whatever growth comes our way." The Annandale City Council now knows it has the capacity to accept growth, she said. A lot of other councils will be questioning their ability to do so. Annandale city administrator Mark Casey, who’s also secretary of the wastewater commission that oversees the treatment plant, said without it there wouldn’t be any more commercial or residential development in the city. That’s not theoretical. Developments have been turned down because Annandale didn’t have enough treatment capacity. he said. "People may not notice the difference when they flush the toilet, but they will sure notice a difference if we fail to have any commercial and residential development." Casey likened the capacity to treat wastewater to a community’s life blood. A city could have the greatest roads and other amenities, but if it can’t get rid of its waste, it’s not a viable option. Annandale Mayor Brennan "Buck" McAlpin pointed out the shared plant saves money. "It goes to show how cities can partner on projects." A single plant and operator do the work of three plants and three operators. "That’s a cost savings to the taxpayers." The shared approach allows the plant to have an ultraviolet system to kill bacteria while most smaller plants can only afford to use chlorine, which isn’t as safe or efficient, he said. And the addition of Howard Lake to the partnership has spread the shock of the recession and kept the plant’s rates lower than they would have been. The monthly cost per thousand gallons will go up 50 cents next year to $3.50, but McAlpin said without Howard Lake’s population to share the burden, low-interest financing for its construction and a bonus $6 million federal stimulus grant because of Howard Lake’s timing, the increase could have been $1.75. Harmoning acknowledged the plant caused hard feelings among Albion Township opponents. A lot of people were expecting the worst, and they’re getting the best, she said, referring to the fact that area property owners can petition to tie into the sewer line. The commission will celebrate the plant’s completion with a formal dedication and open house, Casey said, but a date hasn’t been set.
