by John Gessner
Thisweek Newspapers

Appropriation of $5.5 million in state bonding money was supposed to seal the deal on construction of a plant to capture and treat water pumped from the Kraemer Mining and Materials quarry in Burnsville.

The Legislature has delivered the money. But now the parties behind the project -- Burnsville, Savage, Kraemer and possibly other cities -- are having trouble reaching their end of the deal.

Once planned for 2007, construction of the $13 million treatment plant will be delayed until at least 2008. Even then its future is uncertain. The project must be underway by the end of 2008, or Burnsville must return the state money secured in the 2005 and 2006 legislative sessions.

Burnsville officials had envisioned the state paying about half the cost, Kraemer paying about a quarter, and Burnsville and Savage splitting the other quarter.

"We thought that it was going to be a simple matter," said Burnsville City Manager Craig Ebeling. "It's not being simple right now."

The plant would capture 4 million of the 10 million gallons pumped daily from Kraemer's limestone quarry and treat it for municipal use.

State lawmakers favored the project because it would lessen pressure on use of groundwater that sustains government-protected wetland complexes in Burnsville and Savage -- the Black Dog Fen, the Savage Fen, the Eagle Creek trout stream and Boiling Springs.

Kraemer's interest is reducing the cost of dewatering needed to preserve access to the limestone quarry, which will be mined for years to come. All water displaced from the quarry west of I-35W is now pumped into the Minnesota River.

For Burnsville and Savage, the long-discussed plant once represented a secure future source of water at a time when the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) seemed to offer no guarantees of permission to drill new wells.

But that situation has changed in recent years, and with new wells approved in both cities, pressure to reach a deal on the treatment plant seems to have dissipated.

"It's not like the plant's a dead issue," said Savage City Administrator Barry Stock. "It's just that everybody's continuing to do their due diligence because things have changed in the last three years."

Savage has several options for completing its water supply, Stock said. The city received DNR permission to drill a new well into the sensitive Mount Simon-Hinckley aquifer. The well should be done in the next few months.

"That was big," Stock said.

"We have adequate water capacity," he said. "What we don't have is adequate treatment capacity." But the city has four or five years to find a solution.

Meanwhile, Burnsville has also discussed possible cost-sharing and water-use partnerships with Prior Lake and Lakeville.

"If we don't have other municipal partners, it makes it more challenging for us to go it on our own," Ebeling said.

Burnsville has also been granted added capacity since the plant was first discussed. After adopting an odd-even summer watering ban and sequencing its well use to reduce impacts on the Black Dog Fen, the city received DNR permission to build a 17th well.

Burnsville doesn't need water from the plant, said City Council Member Liz Workman, who serves on a joint committee of Burnsville and Savage officials.

"I still support the concept," she said. "I think it's a fabulous idea, but it comes with a huge cost, and if we don't need the water, why should this be on the backs of Burnsville citizens? It shouldn't. If the state feels this is a huge need, then maybe the state needs to step up more."

Bringing Lakeville into the deal is problematic because the treated water would cost Lakeville residents much more than they pay now under a municipal system heavily subsidized by high connection fees, officials say.

Meanwhile, the cost-sharing arrangement between Burnsville and Kraemer isn't settled, said Executive Vice President Dave Edmunds.

The city wants to build and operate the plant without raising water rates, and the company wants to negotiate a "fair investment," Edmunds said.

"The idea of making our needs clear and using a framework the city can feel comfortable with is kind of a challenge," he said. "We're going to get it done."

Said Ebeling, "We are into some pretty intricate and sensitive negotiations."

The DNR still backs the plant, said Pat Lynch, hydrologist for the southwest metro area. Concerns about groundwater supply in the region remain, he said.

"The fens are still there. The trout stream is still there. And the growth is still there in terms of population," Lynch said.

John Gessner is at burnsville.thisweek@ecm-inc.com.