Minutes - Public Works Committee - 01/21/2003

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Mayor Gamec stated that his concern is that if the City is made aware of a site problem and they don't do anything about it than the City is put at risk for a lawsuit. Councilmember Zimmerman stated that to be fair to both parties there is the right-of-way line where the City's rights end and the property owner's begins and they need to make sure that the City is not going onto private property to trim branches. Consensus of the Public Works Committee was to direct staff to work with the property owner on trimming back the trees. Case #2: Update on NPDES Phase II Implementation Principal City Engineer Olson stated that in April of last year, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) started discussion regarding the National Pollution Discharge Elimination Systems (NPDES) Phase II. The MPCA was given the responsibility of developing a procedure for implementing this second phase of stormwater permitting by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). By August of last year the procedure was next to complete but still pending a legal challenge in the court system. Since there was still some uncertainty in what was the appropriate course of action to ensure compliance with the new rules, the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) asked for participation from affected cities and received an enormous response. The City of Ramsey was one of 109 cities and 3 counties that financially participated in the preparation of the Guide Plan to identify the steps necessary to comply with this unfunded federal mandate. On November 7, 2002, the Guide Plan was completed and delivered to each of the participating member cities. On December 9, 2002, the permit process was complete. The primary goal of this permit is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of waters of the state through management and treatment of urban storm water runoff. This i s accomplished b y management o f Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems through a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Program. Councilmember Zimmerman inquired as to what the in-house costs would be. Principal City Engineer Olson explained that this is an extremely intensive process, depending on what is put in the application. The program is an unfunded mandate imposed by the MPCA and there have been estimates as to what the cost will be to each city ranging from $2.00 to $10.00 per capita. He did not believe that the $10.00 per capita was out of line. It was his recommendation that the funds from the storm water utility be used to offset the costs. Councilmember Kurak inquired if they use the storm water utility funds to offset the costs of the program what will the City do if they need to clean ditches. She questioned if staff was considering increasing the storm water utility rate. Principal City Engineer Olson explained that the City of Ramsey has a very complicated storm water utility system. Public Works Committee/January 21, 2003 Page 4 of 11