Victoria MN Newspaper

Cara's thoughts and information continued, "We need to build a new facility. At two or three o'clock in the morning, our water supply plummets because that's when sprinklers come on. If there was a fire at that time, there could be a problem."

She said the new underground tank is more amenable to the nearby residents than an elevated tower. "We want authorization for preliminary design," said Cara. "Existing neighbors are against an elevated tank. Maybe the existing booster station at the park can be used to also pump water for the underground facility."

"I'm not going to be comfortable recommending new homes with our current water supply," said the city engineer. "Plats on the south side of Victoria are coming in faster than anticipated, also from the construction side."

She said it takes a fair amount of time for construction of the underground tank to get online after design is approved. The design phase is about a six week process. She looks to bid the project this winter.

Asked Councilmember Jim Crowley, "If we want to motivate people to use less water, what are our options?"

Asked Mayor Tom O'Connor, "Is excessive usage really a problem? Then we're just feeding the beast."

Replied Cara, "We are generally starting to see a decline in groundwater levels. It's interesting that the money that people are paying for the high water use is paying for the water facility."

Said Councilmember Tom Strigel, "It's a double edged sword, like with our water treatment plant which gets paid for by people sending us big checks for water usage."

"We're looking at another well in 2016," said Cara. "It's not just the storage being impacted. It's the whole water system In our defense, we have a lot of new sod to be watered."

"So my question remains," said Mayor O'Connor, "do we really have a water usage problem?"

Responding to other questions, Victoria Finance Manager Kelly Grinnell replied, "Right now we have close to $3 million in the water fund. We can pay for the facility without risking cash flow. In addition, there is still $730,000 owed to the water fund. It's being paid back at $150,000 per year."

Cara said she had solicited design proposals from two firms. Council voted 4-0 to accept the bid of $15,530 from TKDA/Barr Engineering to complete preliminary design services, including evaluation of the use of the nearby booster station in Rhapsody Park.

VICTORIA NEEDS TO CONSERVE WATER

ARE MUSHROOMS GROWING IN YOUR YARD?

Council held a 5:30 p.m. workshop on July 28th to talk about high water use in Victoria and the need for additional water system infrastructure -- another well, tower, treatment plant, and more watermains.

Ann Mahnke, Director of Parks and Public Works, and City Engineer Cara Geheren spoke to the issue and presented information and statistics.

"Our highest use is in the summer because of irrigation," said Ann. "Summer use actually depends on weather conditions. From 5:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. we put out as much as we can bring in -- 300,000 gallons per minute running at full capacity. You'll see a complete drain down for those two and a half hours."

Water Stats in Victoria

Ann presented charts showing Victoria used 46 million gallons of water in July 2013, 46.3 million in August, 41 million in September. Usage in other 2013 months ranged from 10 to 18 million gallons.

Those millions of gallons of water use in Victoria in 2013 translate to 116 gallons of water per person per day.

In 2012 Victoria also had three months of extremely high water use including 57.4 million gallons in July, 43.1 million in July, and 46 million in September.

Those millions of gallons of water use in Victoria in 2012 translate to 140 gallons of water per person per day.

Cara said that the DNR has a target use of 75 gallons per person per day. "We're expected to meet their targets," she said. "We won't need another permit from them for quite a while, but it's something they're looking at over time."

She added, "Victoria does have a whole lot of new homes and new lawns. Our numbers are consistent with other communities in the area but our groundwater resources are starting to deplete. There's only so much water."

Cara said that the City of White Bear Lake has seen a significant reduction in available water. "Homes there are now much further from the lake and that affects property values," she said.

Click here to continue Needs to Conserve Water.