Minnesota Wastewater Treatment Plant to Receive $19 Million Upgrade

The Metropolitan Council will spend $19 million in order to upgrade the Seneca wastewater plant in Eagan, Minn. The new upgrades will attempt to reduce pollution by way of sludge burning and will replace outdated components.

The new injection of funding was approved on Feb. 27, 2018, and will also allow the plant to become compliant with newer air emissions standards. While the Metropolitan Council is responsible for treating wastewater sourced from Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., the Seneca plant primarily processes waste from the cities of Bloomington, Eagan, Burnsville and Savage in Minnesota.

Before the passing of these new upgrades, the Seneca plant was one of 40 wastewater plants throughout the country that was not compliant with newer standards put forth by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Specifically, the plant will eradicate its archaic sewage sludge incinerator processes.

“We’ve demonstrated compliance with our requirements for sewage sludge incinerators,” said Rene Heflin, manager of plant engineering technical services for The Metropolitan Council. “We’re operating very well and able to meet our emissions limits.”

The plant will also use the funding to become more energy efficient and replace a multilevel roof and gravity system. The Metropolitan Council, which oversees several areas of water infrastructure in the region, will also upgrade the Metropolitan Plant facility and will rehab its system of interceptors.