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City engineers outline Chapter 53 wastewater updates and summer phosphorus limit
Summary
City staff previewed revisions to Chapter 53 to redefine domestic wastewater strength, move fee amounts to a fee schedule, and implement a summer discharge restriction that reduces total phosphorus limits from 1.0 mg/L to 0.32 mg/L for the season; industrial customers were warned of potential fee impacts.
Brandon Braithwaite, city engineer and assistant director of public works, briefed the Hutchinson City Council on proposed updates to Chapter 53 of the city code and on new seasonal discharge limits tied to state requirements.
Braithwaite said the city will redefine "domestic strength" wastewater and reclassify industrial categories so permit and fee language is clearer; fee amounts currently codified in the ordinance will be moved to a fee schedule for easier annual updates. He said the revisions will be presented for two readings in June with an anticipated effective date for billing on July 1.
On seasonal environmental controls, Braithwaite said the city is implementing a summer discharge restriction and that total phosphorus limits for the seasonal period will be reduced from 1.0 milligram per liter to 0.32 mg/L. He said the city received MPCA pretreatment delegation (so the city will monitor local industrial dischargers) and has been meeting with industrial customers to project impacts; staff estimate some industries could see roughly a 5% change in charges based on their loadings.
Braithwaite also described PFAS testing funded by a grant: the city is conducting spot PFAS sampling across the sewer system but currently has no routine PFAS testing requirement. He said the plant is moving from belt presses to centrifugal dewatering equipment to produce a drier biosolids product for agricultural application; biosolids application will remain weather dependent.
Council members asked whether state permit changes were driving the revisions; Braithwaite said evolving MPCA requirements and a need to better align local fees and definitions prompted the study and ordinance updates.
Staff will return with formal ordinance language and two readings in June, and the council may expect an effective date tied to the July billing cycle.
