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The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency <br />(MPCA) should streamline its permitting <br />and re -issuing processes to allow for <br />effluent standards and permit <br />requirements to be known earlier, <br />thereby giving communities more time to <br />defend against contested case hearings. <br />The Legislature should require the <br />MPCA to make its determination <br />regarding permit -required submittals, <br />permit modifications, and the reissuance <br />of a permit within a reasonable set time <br />period, and require the MPCA to make <br />its determinations and reissue the permit <br />within that reasonable set time frame. <br />The state should ensure townships are <br />required to meet the same environmental <br />protection and regulatory requirements <br />as cities. <br />Legislation should be passed that requires <br />state agencies to establish permit <br />requirements only when the criteria they <br />are using is developed through the rule- <br />making process. <br />State agencies need to develop science - <br />based standards and quantify new <br />effluent standards, ensuring that they are <br />scientifically and economically <br />practicable. State and federal agencies <br />should coordinate and integrate their <br />monitoring data to assure that all <br />pertinent data is available and utilized. <br />The state general fund is an appropriate <br />source for state water program funding. <br />Municipal water permit fees should only <br />be increased if new revenue is needed <br />because of increased costs of processing <br />municipal water permits or if the funds <br />would go for specific scientific research, <br />technical and financial support for cities, <br />or agency staffing needed by cities to <br />address environmental and public health <br />concerns, not as a means to generate new <br />revenue to cover other budget shortfalls. <br />The Legislature should create effective, <br />producer -led reduction, reuse, and <br />recycling programs to deal with a <br />product's lifecycle impacts from design <br />through end -of -life management and <br />should regulate products and compounds <br />that damage water quality, sewer <br />collection, stormwater or wastewater <br />treatment systems at the consumer and <br />manufacturing levels, not just at the <br />treatment and infrastructure <br />maintenance level. <br />SD -61. Municipal Public Water <br />Supplies <br />Issue: Essential residential water supplies <br />provided by public water supply systems are <br />classified as the highest priority for the use <br />of public water under Minn Stat §103G.261. <br />Minnesota cities spend significant resources <br />meeting their responsibility to providing <br />safe, reliable, affordable water to their <br />residents in a sustainable manner. That is an <br />essential element in assuring a healthy and <br />stable future for public health, the <br />environment, and economic development. <br />As a result, municipal water suppliers have <br />collected some of the most current and <br />accurate information available on local <br />water conditions. <br />The state requires extensive planning and <br />permitting processes for municipal water <br />suppliers to document that their systems are <br />drawing water at sustainable levels, that the <br />water is safe for human consumption, that <br />they have land use controls in place to <br />protect public water supplies from <br />contamination, that adequate plans exist for <br />emergency and high demand situations, and <br />that rate structures meet state statutory <br />requirements. Those systems are constantly <br />becoming more technologically, <br />League of Minnesota Cities <br />2016 City Policies Page 38 <br />