Thread by @FrederickMelo

Water. Infrastructure matters, though that’s tough to appreciate until it breaks down.

Everything in red must go. St. Paul Regional Water to tear out 2/3rds of 100-year-old water treatment plant (softening, clarification, pre-carbonation, but not filtration that’s new enough to stay) and replace it with modern tech. Largest treatment plant project in state history!

St. Paul Regional Water serves a lot more than St. Paul — 14 communities, 450,000 paying customers, including wholesale buyers like Roseville. McCarrons Plant was built in 1920s, with additions in ‘30s and ‘50s. Does it urgently need replacing? No. But interest rates are low.

Mixing basins — 20 feet deep — to keep particles in suspension before they get to the clarifiers. These basins will make particles larger so they’re easier to capture. Say goodbye. All this has to go!

Where will new plant go? Where the old one isn’t. Goal is to have 2 plants — old and new — next to each other, flip a switch, and move from old to new systems. Assuming all goes well, only customers who will know are readers of this Tweet. If that falls apart, switch back fast.

What’s a 90-year-old water clarifying chamber look like empty? Like Star Wars meets Mad Max fighting arena. Cold. Huge echo. Time to tear it down. “It’s time to go,” says GM Steve Schneider. WPA/Depression project.

Let me just clarify something... Clarifiers built in 1920-1930s. Frosty ceilings here.

You would not want to drink your tap water when they first put the lime in, if you have mucus membranes. They only have one recarbonation basin at this moment. Goal is to have 2. Most of the plant is already fully redundant (there’s 5 clarifiers). But this function isn’t.

They’ve got redundant flocculators. No, I am not making that up. You can sleep sound tonight.

Back in 1990s, lake algae blooms changed taste and odor of tap water, leading to hundreds of complaints. It was one of Schneider’s first projects: switch from sand filters to granular activated carbon filters. U of M research in action!

Little pumps serve downtown St. Paul and West Side. Big pumps serve East Side and beyond.

I feel like I’m getting my PhD in Ph adjustment.

Heavy construction begins in fall 2022. Replacing 2/3rds of the century-old McCarrons Water Treatment Plant will cost ratepayers money — an estimated $160 million spread across 450,000 customers in the east metro. Here’s what that means for you.

First part of a 2-part design-build contract with Jacobs Engineering signed in January. If you pay about $26 in water per month today, that will kick up to $32 by 2024. An increase of $6 per month, or $72 per year to cover all capital improvements, dependent on your volume/usage.

In Texas, water valves are basically at ground level — infrastructure lives just under a manhole cover. In Minnesota, your water meter is in the basement and the water main that feeds it is 8 feet down, or 4 feet below the freeze line. Great for avoiding freeze; tough for access.

Still, even with mains well below the freeze lines, St. Paul Regional Water rushes out to one minor break per day around this time of year, and a relatively big one on Furness Parkway Thursday. GM Steve Schneider won’t be handling that much longer. After 30 years, he’s retiring.