Agenda - Public Works Committee - 10/19/2021

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Chapter 1 - Introduction Metropolitan Council Environmental Services (MCES) has partnered with communities to study regional water supply sustainability initiatives in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. One of these initiatives is the Northwest Metropolitan Area Regional Surface Water Supply System Study (Study). This study is a collaborative and cooperative effort between MCES and the Cities or Corcoran, Dayton, Ramsey, and Rogers (Northwest Metro). The scope of this study was developed in conjunction with the Northwest Metro communities. The approaches evaluated in the study are not meant to be prescriptive, but serve as examples to stimulate future planning that could involve a hybrid of alternatives identified in the study, or in combination with water conservation measures and other sustainability approaches. 1.1 Study Objectives The primary objective of this study is to understand the relative costs and implementation considerations of different approaches to a regional water supply in the Northwest Metro regional area. This study evaluates four approaches to water supply: • Approach 1: Regional Surface Water Treatment Plant • Approach 2: Regional Groundwater Treatment Plant • Approach 3: Regional Conjunctive Use System (Surface Water Augmented with Groundwater) • Approach 4: Status Quo The approaches were selected in consultation with the study partner communities. The project components developed for each approach should be viewed as examples. The best option for moving forward may be a hybrid of the examples considered in this study and could involve approaches that were not considered in this study. The "status quo" approach assumes that all communities continue with separate water supply systems and provides a comparison to the three regional water supply approaches evaluated. This study does not provide a "shovel-ready" project for implementation. The projects defined by each approach are at aconcept-level, with the intent to compare relative differences in costs between approaches, and more importantly to explore the implementation issues associated with each approach. Joint water system governance and cost sharing options are also explored as part of the implementation considerations evaluation. 1.2 Evaluation Process This study defines concept level water infrastructure systems to deliver the approaches identified in the study objectives. The basic elements of the evaluation include: • Description of concept system alternatives • Concept level costs • Considerations for implementation • Comparison of potential benefits of alternative/approach combinations to the sustainability of water resources and system reliability in the Northwest Metro area 1.3 Study Area The Northwest Metro study area is delineated in Figure 1-1. The communities in the study area include the cities of Corcoran, Dayton, Ramsey and Rogers. Page—1 1 METROPOLITAN COUNCIL