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Joint WMO Mtg. /Member Cities February 21, 1990 Page 3 sibility to regulate this area's water quality and to see that it is properly discharged from the numerous developments into our water resources. Nagel pointed out while the State Legislature is mandating these duties and directives, they are not providing the financial backing in order to fund these activities. As Treasurer, Mathisen stated the LRRWMO has been operating from an annual budget of approximately $6,500 distributed, based on valuation, among the four member cities. He warned those present that in the future these actual costs will go up. However, he didn't foresee that a huge amount of money will have to be spent. There will have to be more review and mandated requirements for water quality, but didn't feel costs to the cities would have to go up a great deal more. Project reviews will be charged back to the developer. Hartley felt each community is concerned with retaining good water quality and controlling the surface water. They now have to deal with another level of government, which is already here. The real concern is who will ultimately retain control. Rather than letting the Legislature turn everything over to the Met Council, Hartley felt the Legislature should be informed that we have an organization in place, the LRRWMO, doing the work. The cities would then be able to establish and maintain local control through the Joint Powers Agreement. Passing control to the county and Met Council creates more problems than dealing with them ourselves. WATER QUALITY DRAFT GUIDELINES Skallman briefly reviewed the draft guidelines for water quality management in the Lower Rum River WMO. He recom- mended priorities for getting these guidelines implemented without having to spend a lot of money: Identify problem areas; then new developing areas, working with them so they take care of the problems on a planning basis; redeveloping areas; and then finally, retrofitting existing systems. Knight queried whether it is necessary to have this addi- tional level of government dealing with many of the same issues the DNR and PCA does. He felt we are only duplicating things. Orttel again urged if these standards and guidelines are necessary, the terminology and rules used should be the same as those used by the DNR and other agencies. Schrantz agreed that the terminology used to classify water resources in the draft guidelines provided could be changed from "Class" to "Category" to avoid confusion with wetlands.