Laketown Township urges Carver County to help fund replacement of aging '201' wastewater system

Laketown Township officials asked the Carver County Board of Commissioners on the record to help fund a phased replacement of a federal "201" wastewater system that serves 208 homes around Wrights Lake, Pearson Lake and Lake Bavaria.

Pete Perris, a Laketown Township board member, told the board the system was built in the early 1980s under Section 201 grant programs for publicly owned treatment works and has long exceeded its 20-year design life. "These things are 40 to 42, 43 years old, so they are starting to fall apart a little bit," Perris said, citing frequent repairs and rising homeowner costs for failing septic components.

The township presented a two-phase plan. Perris said Phase 1 would cover about 178 homes with design in 2026 and construction in 2027; Phase 2 would cover roughly 130 homes with design in 2027 and construction in 2028. He gave a Phase 1 estimate of "a little bit better than $12,000,000" and said the project requires a mix of federal and state grants, a county contribution and local assessments.

Under the current plan, Perris said Laketown residents at large would be responsible for $250,000 per phase (about $500,000 total) and each resident on the 201 system would face an additional assessment of about $25,000 payable over 20 years. "If everybody doesn't participate, this project does not move forward," Perris said, stressing that federal and state participation is contingent on local matches.

Township operations staff described technical vulnerabilities: 27 lift stations in the system, sections of thin Schedule 30 PVC pipe originally installed for air that were not designed for long sewage runs, limited access points for jet cleaning and a three-inch force main under Wrights Lake. Dan Schilling, the township sewer operator, explained that some neighborhood systems use community mound or sand-filter systems and that state permits require seasonal testing and chlorine dosing at treatment manholes.

Perris recounted an emergency response that underscored the risk: "We got 2 loads of sewage, which was roughly 8,000 gallons that we pumped out of [the] system," he said of a Christmas Eve incident at Lake Bavaria when a broken line discharged into a neighbor's yard and into snow.

County staff and commissioners asked about funding and whether nearby cities would contribute. Perris said Chaska, Victoria and Waconia had generally declined to pay because the affected homes are not currently their residents, though he described coordination opportunities — such as leaving stub-outs in new city developments — that could reduce costs.

County staff told the board the 2026 county budget contains no earmarked funds for the project; a county estimate discussed in the meeting showed a $3,000,000 county request would translate to roughly $250,000 per year in debt service over 20 years. "So if you're asking for $3,000,000, it's about 300,000, per year in bond payments," a county commissioner said during the discussion.

Commissioners suggested the county could support the township with a letter of support, examine year-end savings as a possible source, or consider the request during the standard budget packaging process rather than making a same-day commitment. No formal vote or binding county funding decision was taken; commissioners directed staff to treat the request as a budget item for review.

Next steps described at the meeting included completing final engineering work (the township is under contract for design), refining cost-sharing details and providing legal documents describing original construction and maintenance responsibilities for county review. Commissioner Faye asked county staff to review original installation and maintenance agreements so the board can better understand historic responsibilities and any potential liability.

The presentation closed with the township asking the county to consider a contribution and to include the request in the budget process; the board did not adopt any immediate fiscal commitment. The meeting adjourned without a vote.