Agenda - Council - 12/11/2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Introduction Metropolitan Sewer Availability Charge (SAC) is required by state statute MS 473.517 subd. 3. This charge to communities (cities and other building authorities) is determined on a site by site basis and the revenue is used to pay for the "reserve capacity" built into the metropolitan wastewater system for future users (typically about 113 of the capital project costs of the system). This helps keep regular, volume -based, sewer fees among the Lowest for metropolitan areas in the country. It also provides for the costs of wastewater demand to be borne by those communities where the service is growing and only as needed (pay -as -you -build). The SAC fee system was implemented metro -wide in 1973 and largely eliminated the market risk for communities in the building of reserve capacity into the metropolitan wastewater system. The collected metropolitan SAC fees, by law, are used only to fund the construction or betterment of the metropolitan wastewater system, an award winning system worth over a billion dollars, SAC "credits" are a tally of regional wastewater capacity that has been 'freed up' within a community and which are used to offset metropolitan SAC for wastewater demand that otherwise would be charged to the community. Policies around SAC credits have changed over time. Current policy restricts metropolitan SAC credits to the site on which they are generated, and the primary request of the 2012 SAC Work Group was to determine whether to allow the re -implementation of SAC credits, where the freed up capacity is not needed on a site, for use elsewhere in a community. 2012 SAC Work Group In early 2012 Metro Cities requested that Metropolitan Council Environmental Services (MCES), as well as various stakeholders, to revisit SAC rules regarding "net credits" for the Sewer Availability Charge (SAC) program, Metro Cities and MCES staff solicited volunteers from diverse communities to review the rules and determine if a consensus could be achieved for improvements to the rules. Additionally, the Council and Mayor of the City of St. Paul independently asked that the Council consider loans for small businesses needing to pay SAC and the City of Minneapolis asked for a review of those issues and all other MCES services and outreach related to SAC. The work group addressed all these areas. The 2012 SAC work group met 5 times from July through October 2012 (minutes are attached). Work Group Members include: • Gary Van Ey11, Metropolitan Council Member & Co-chair • Patricia Nauman, Metro Cities & Co-chair • Wendy Wulff, Metropolitan Council Member • James Dickinson, Andover • Robert Cockriel, Bloomington • Amy Baldwin, Brooklyn Park • Jon Watson, Brooklyn Park • Brent Mareck, Carver (resigned) • Gene Abbott, Lakeville • Lisa Cerr°rey, Minneapolis • Pierre Willette, Minneapolis • Patrick Trudgeon, Roseville • Brian Hoffman, St. Louis Park • Ellen Muller, St. Paul • Jim Bloom, St. Paul 11Page