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The Scoop

at City Hall

He pointed out that from 2001 to 2006, the City of Victoria spent $4 million in core fees (sewer and water fees that the city collect along with building permit fees) in order to build trunk sewer and water pipes to serve additional growth. Sewer and water trunk infrastructure is typically financed with sewer and water core fees. Some projects include a negotiated contribution from developers.

A summary statement from city administration reads, "The extension of utilities is feasible through collection of fees and taxes and negotiated developer contributions. There are impacts to the city's long term financial plan, service levels, and

commercial growth if residential growth ceases."

He said the utility cost for the city would be $2 million to serve 170 single family and 32 multi-family homes on three of the two parcels if developed at Lake Wasserman.

STORMWATER PONDS ALL OVER THE PLACE

SOME CONTAINING HAZARDOUS WASTE

City Engineer Cara Geheren reported, "This is a topic we talk about frequently. We have a permit from the state to discharge stormwater into water bodies. There is a tremendous amount of reporting necessary. The comment often is, 'Let us spend our time on cleaning up water instead of writing reports.'"

"Also, as many of you know," she continued, "we've been in a holding pattern in regard to dredging our stormwater ponds. The problem is to dispose of the material being dredged up from these ponds. Right now we don't have significant problems, and maintenance is ongoing with our ponds."

According to Administrator Don Uram, approximately 76 stormwater ponds are located within the City of Victoria.

Asked Councilmember Jim Crowley, "What are the materials typically dredged out of these ponds? Hazardous waste?"

Replied Cara, "The particular material causing cancer is PAH's." It stands for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons.

"They come from sealcoat material used on driveways, used by private people. It's not a material that the city uses. As individuals, people could easily ask for an alternative product."

"What are the negatives of PAH?" asked Councilmember Tom Strigel.

"There are health risk associated with it," replied Cara, "particularly potentially for younger children. There's a lot of good evidence on it that I could provide to the city council."

"What are the disposal costs?" asked Councilmember Strigel.

"There are two costs," said Cara. "One is testing what you're going to remove, and the tests themselves are expensive. For us to randomly begin testing is probably not the best use of our money. You can imagine how many stormwater ponds there are in the metro area. We can't possibly dispose of all this material at our hazardous sites."

"The University of Minnesota is researching whether something can be done from a composting perspective," she said. "White Bear Lake is doing some berming with it and a lot of people are working hard on this. It is important for us to be engaged in the process, but I think it's okay for people with a little more money than we have to take the lead on this. We don't want to be on the record as shooting for the moon."

Cara added, however, that Victoria wants at least to meet the minimum standards and avoid law suits. She said that the City of Victoria, with its small population, can spend its dollars to clean up the ponds as best we can.

"I appreciate your pragmatic approach," said Councilmember Strigel.

Cara also pointed out that the City of Victoria did receive a Blue Star Award for its clean water efforts.

Said Councilmember Tom O'Connor, "So if I choose the wrong product to do our driveway, I'm contributing to the problem. I suggest the average citizen has no idea that there is a wrong product to use. We ought to know about this and widely disseminate the information."

The city administrator and city engineer will work at getting this information to residents, probably through the city newsletter and utility billing.

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