Brainerd utilities staff favor new submersible wet‑well for main lift station after public hearing

On March 25 the Brainerd City Public Utilities Commission (BPU) held a public hearing on a proposed rehabilitation or replacement of the city’s main lift station. Bill Westerberg, an engineer with Widseth, presented four alternatives and the analysis used to decide a preferred approach; BPU staff informed the commission they had eliminated two alternatives and selected Alternative 3, a new submersible‑style wet‑well station south of the existing pretreatment building, as the preferred option to advance in the facility plan and to pursue Public Facilities Authority (PFA) funding and placement on the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Intended Use Plan (IUP).

Westerberg said the team “bas[ed] the design on acquiring PFA funding and creating a facility plan,” and described the project need as driven by aging infrastructure, floodplain exposure and declining pump performance. The existing main lift station was built about 40 years ago; the pretreatment…