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Le Mars schedules public hearing on wastewater facility plan addressing nutrient rules and capacity requests
Summary
Council set a March 18, 2025 noon public hearing on a 1,000+-page wastewater treatment facility plan prepared for submission to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources; the plan addresses NPDES permit compliance, nutrient removal and capacity requests from local industries.
Le Mars City Council voted March 4 to set a public hearing for 12 p.m. on March 18, 2025 for the city’s wastewater treatment facility plan, a city staff summary and the plan’s engineer said. The facility plan will be submitted to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for review.
The executive summary presented to council describes a 1,000-plus-page facility plan prepared by Bolton & Menk. Council was told the plan is intended to keep the city in compliance with its NPDES discharge permit and to address changes required under the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy for nitrogen and phosphorus removal.
Anderson, an engineer with Bolton & Menk, told council that DNR requires formal city approval of the facility plan as part of the DNR review process. Anderson also said DNR’s review typically takes three to four months; staff suggested the city could expect a DNR response around June.
The plan includes design-year load and flow projections that respond to requests from local industries: Wells requested a 50% increase in allocated capacity; Kemps requested a 40% increase; and the city’s design flow was increased by about 20% (a population-equivalent design of about 13,000). In addition to those design-year increases, Wells requested 20% reserve capacity; Kemps requested 0% reserve capacity; the city included a 20% reserve for residential/commercial loadings in its design assumptions, council was told.
Council moved and seconded the resolution to establish the March 18 public hearing; the motion carried on voice vote with no recorded roll-call names at the meeting. Staff said the facility plan is available for public review at city hall and that the city will submit the plan to DNR for review once council completes the hearing and approval process required by DNR.
The council’s action on March 4 was to set the public hearing; council did not adopt the facility plan that day. Staff noted the plan can be amended if DNR requests changes or if local circumstances change.
