The Hastings City Council met on Monday, July 21 to hear from the Metropolitan Council regarding near- and long-term planning for Hastings sewage, the future of the Hastings water resource recovery facility, and possible future uses for the site along the Mississippi.
The council heard from various representatives from the Met Council including the newly elected representative for District 12 Mark Jenkins.
“I look forward to being your voice on the Metropolitan Council, and sometimes I’ll be the voice of the Metropolitan Council’s voice coming back to you,” said Jenkins.
Currently, Hastings Water Resource Recovery Facility is operating below its capacity, processing an average of 1.5 million gallons daily of its 2.3-million-gallon plant capacity.
The site was built in 1955 and was acquired by the Metropolitical Sewer Board which was later merged with the Met Council.
According to Met Council predictions and population growth for the city of Hastings, the plant will be able to address city water usage through 2050, but is not viable long term.
The Met Council had previously intended on using a site along Ravenna Trail, but “discovered important cultural resources on the property. Disturbing this area would have significant adverse impacts that could not be mitigated,” said Sam Paske, Assistant General Manager for Metropolitan Council’s Environmental Services Division.
The site is no longer viable for a future facility.
The Met Council is currently working on a new study, the Kimley Horn Trunk Highway Sewer Study, which would potentially allow for a pump plant that could move water west out of the city.
“We’ve been looking at is it feasible to bring the flow from downtown to the point in the city where we could reverse the flow and take it out west. And we’ve answered those questions that it is feasible,” said Engineer Chad Davison.
As to what near-term solutions are for the city, Met Council will have to wait for the conclusions of the study in December for “a little more clarity by then,” said Paske.
Beyond that, the timeframe for the construction of a new long-term plant is out a decade at least, said Paske. Even that number isn’t definite with 2-3 years of planning slated before concrete ideas are decided upon.
“That planning work has to be conducted before we can know when we are going to be building. Before we know what we are building, it’s hard to estimate what that time is. I can say it won’t be sooner than 10 years, but we are going to expedite that as much as we can,” said Paske.
The end goal, however, is to have a water resource recovery facility that allows for greater growth in Hastings, especially on the western side of town, keeps up with the requirements of plants, and eventually frees up space along the river downtown.