The Conceptual Drinking Water Supply plan provides safe, sustainable drinking water to the affected 14 East Metro communities now and into the future. The plan prioritizes drinking water treatment, operation and maintenance and drinking water protection, for both public water systems and private wells. Each of the 14 affected communities received a tailored project list based off their needs, community feedback and cost estimates.
Lake Elmo community projects includes:
- Supplying drinking water from a combination of existing wells and new wells or an interconnect with Woodbury*
- Connecting 97 homes
- Supplying other private wells with point-of-entry systems (POETS)—a whole home water filtration system—if over the treatment threshold at the time of the plan
*The co-Trustees set aside sufficient capital funding for either an autonomous option (two wells within Lake Elmo's borders that likely will need treatment) or an interconnect between Woodbury and Lake Elmo, due to some uncertainty regarding their future water source.
Projects can start now
The next step is implementing the Conceptual Plan. After reviewing the plan, your community leadership will put together the design plans for their projects in the final plan.
For individual homeowners, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will continue to manage the installation and maintenance of your in-home (POETS) systems. The State will continue to test private wells for PFAS at no cost to the homeowners. Homeowners can use the well sampling request form to have their well added to the sampling program.
Working together to protect drinking water
The State of Minnesota, in collaboration with local government, citizen, business and technical workgroups, as well as thousands of public comments, developed the Conceptual Plan. Under the 2018 settlement agreement with 3M for PFAS contamination in the Twin Cities East Metro, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources oversee long-term projects to enhance the quality, quantity and sustainability of drinking water for the affected 14 communities.