MAZEPPA, Minn. — Small communities across Minnesota with deteriorating water and waste systems are struggling to find the funding to replace them.
Mazeppa City Administrator Karl Nahrgang has been in the role for eight years, and for most of that, the city's wastewater treatment facility has been on the steady decline. Daf Wastewater Treatment Plant
"We've known that our treatment plant is in the final stages of its life cycle for several years," Nahrgang said recently inside the quiet chambers of the city hall.
In similar meeting rooms across Minnesota, the value of local government is being put to the test; if residents are really in the best position to solve complex, financial situations in order to deliver services to their community. For rural towns and cities, populations are rising, putting added pressure on aging infrastructure.
Mazeppa's wastewater facility was built in the 1950s and underwent its last major improvements in 1987. According to a report by principal engineer Matt Mohs, city engineer with Bolton & Menk, the plant is due for a major upgrade but the equipment is too outdated to get parts.
Nahrgang said the council first looked at financing a new treatment plant on its own, which took planning a few years ahead to see what bonds would be coming off the books.
"Trying to time it so that the money we're using to pay off general obligation bonds in the past could just be moved right into paying for this project," he said.
Later they looked at joining the North Zumbro Sanitary Sewer District project with Zumbrota, Wanamingo, Pine Island and Goodhue, a capital infrastructure request to build a regional wastewater treatment plant.
"Looking at some of the uncertainty that project was looking at at that time, our council decided they wanted to maintain a little bit more local control, and wanted to have a more sure time frame," he said. "We made a decision early in the process to build our own facility or replace our own facility."
That will happen thanks to backing from USDA Rural Development which recently put $800 million in funding to different programs for value-added and infrastructure construction. The state of Minnesota will receive over $230 million of that, said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in a visit to the state this summer.
The city of Mazeppa will use a $6.253 million Water and Waste Loan and Grant and Water and Waste Disposal Loans and Grants of $6.036 million to cover costs for the new wastewater treatment plant. It will take years to build but getting the financial backing was huge for the city, which has exceeded regulatory wastewater limits several times since 2015 and are now trending upward.
Nahrgang said they locked into their USDA money in 2022 which kept their interest rates down.
"So that was kind of just good fortune and timing on our part and some real effort by our council, our public works and our engineering firm to push through the plan fast enough that we were able to secure the financing before the rate the interest rate increases," he said.
Looking through a fence lined with rusted barbed wire, Nahrgang pointed out the parts of the wastewater treatment plant built in the '50s, which have outlived life expectancy but look better for wear than the trickling filter and final clarifier which were added in the '80s.
"They used the front half and then rebuilt the back half," he said.
The population increased over a percent since the late '90s, Nahrgang said, which for a small city is hundreds of people. Mazeppa had a population of 874 in 2020, according to the U.S. Census. It now has a population of about 911 in 2023, according to World Population Review. In preparation for the project, the city increased its wastewater and sewer rates approximately 30%, which he said was similar to other communities of the same size.
It's reasonable that residents are more aware of the water they're drinking than the wastewater they're creating, which needs to be treated before its added to public waters.
"Getting drinking water to homes is a big expense also, but treatment is actually the biggest of all, and that's in every community," he said, especially for smaller ones.
Scott Ellingson is the public works director in Mazeppa, and the responsible party overseeing 50 to 70 gallons of wastewater entering the plant per minute. All of which is treated before going into the North Fork of the Zumbro River. Ellingson balances the work at the plant with plowing city streets and mowing about 10 acres.
As he watched water pass through the final clarifier from the trickling filter, Ellingson said he kind of fell into his career in wastewater management and with each day, the process became clearer to him. The plant's goal can be simplified to getting a top layer to sink and get water to clear out.
"Everything settles out, then we treat it," he said. "Then you get in final and primary clarifiers, a sludge on the bottom from where it settles down. And then you take that sludge and you move it onto storage."
The job has some interesting perks like seeing the items that weren't meant to be flushed such as rags, feminine products and some unique ones.
"In the far screen I've raked up a few cell phones," Ellingson joked. "How they made it that far, I don't know. Had to be a high flow to move them down."
Walking up the steps to the trickling filter, Ellingson said it's the most deteriorated part of the plant.
"See how the fiberglass is just like falling," he said.
Trickling filters are "old school" but Ellingson said they're still being used at plants today. He opens the latch to the trickling filter and the inside of it is coated with tiny black bugs, which the proper term for are microorganisms. A glimpse can be caught of a rotating sprinkler.
"They breed, big time in here," Ellingson said of the microorganisms. "It's no fun to go in there and clean those spouts. When I go in there, I put in earplugs, a mask and the whole."
He knows he won't be hurt, but it's the feeling afterwards that every itch is a living thing.
Ellingson, who is 55, said he's excited to work at the new plant if it's done by the time he retires. The last few years have been a waiting game in which he had no control over.
"You're worried about stuff like, are you getting grants or are you getting loans? How much of it did you get? You don't always get what you ask for, and then you got to come up with other ways to," Ellingson said of the process.
The new plant is expected to break ground in 2024 and will take at least 18-24 months. Until then, Ellingson will watch the old plant finish out its time in the city.
Sewage Treatment Looking to where the plant runs into the Zumbro River, Ellingson said "whatever is going out is cleaner than what's already there."