Le Sueur seeks state funds for wastewater improvements, N. 4th Street project

In a bid for funding from the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority, the Le Sueur City Council adopted a new wastewater facility plan Monday, combining a proposed $1.5 million in improvements to the facility’s data control system with existing plans to replace sanitary sewer utilities on North Fourth Street and Cathcart.

In a presentation to the City Council, Senior Project Engineer Mike Saunders of water engineering consulting firm AE2S said the city’s wastewater collections control system (SCADA) was becoming obsolete. The system, which utilizes programmable logic controllers (PLC) and computer software to monitor wastewater levels in the event of an emergency, is still functional but no longer supported by the original manufacturer.

“It still works, but if a PLC went down, it would be difficult to source that PLC. There’s also going to be less and less support based on the age of the PLCs,” said Saunders. “Basically, it’s just a risk to continue to use these if they fail.”

The $1.5 million proposal aims to replace the lift station control panels at the Henderson Road lift station and three other lift stations around town, as well as four control panels managing the wastewater facility and its SCADA software and hardware.

The Mayo Park lift station was originally included in the project as well, but following the damages it suffered from the historic levels of flooding earlier this month, the lift station was removed from the project. City Administrator Joe Roby said the bypass installed in the wake of the flooding continues to work as expected. In the short-term, the city aims to remove the bypass as quickly as possible and find an alternate lift station site in the future.

On its own, the wastewater project is ineligible for funding through a low-interest bond from the state’s Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund, but the city of Le Sueur is making a bid for dollars from the MPCA by expanding the scope of the project with the inclusion of plans to replace North Fourth Street and Cathcart’s sanitary sewer facilities.

“Where we gained a lot of points and credibility in our wastewater project was the recognition of the sanitary sewer, the age of it and the fact that it was clay pipe and the I&I reduction,” said Le Sueur City Engineer Corey Bienfang. “The MPCA looked very favorably on PFA and I&I reduction which we anticipated as we were replacing that clay sewer and services with the new PVC.”

The replacement of clay pipes with PVC under the roadway makes up just one component of the sweeping $8.6 million reconstruction project, which stretches along the N. Fourth Street corridor between Bridge Street and Dakota Street and branches off to cover Cathcart Street between the N. Fourth Street intersection and Commerce Street.