An aging water treatment plant in Rochester and a new drinking water facility in Lino Lakes are among the big winners in the latest round of project funding from the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority.
The MPFA recently announced $265 million in low-interest loans and grants for 27 wastewater and drinking water improvements throughout the state, including the Rochester and Lino Lakes projects, both of which are already under construction.
Nearly a third of the announced funding — $80 million — is headed for Rochester, where the city is upgrading its wastewater treatment plant to meet more stringent state permitting requirements, among other fixes. The total project cost is $91.3 million.
Scheduled for completion in December 2026, the project will replace aging equipment, improve efficiency, reduce operational and maintenance costs and reduce phosphorus from drinking water with less reliance on chemicals, according to the city.
City officials say the improvements will save Rochester $230,000 per year in power consumption and $170,000 in chemical costs.
Aaron Luckstein, Rochester’s deputy director of public works – environmental services, said last summer that the project will provide a “clean reclaimed water resource through reliable and efficient wastewater treatment.”
“With the planned upgrades,” he added, “the plant will meet a state-required, more stringent phosphorus limit, improve energy efficiency, reduce reliance on costly chemicals and address aging equipment.”
State funding for the Rochester project includes a $72 million low-interest loan, a $7 million State of Minnesota Point Source Implementation Grant, and a $1 million forgivable loan. Rate payers in the city will see a roughly 1% annual increase in sewer charges over a 20-year period, Luckstein said Monday.
The city is also using savings reserves to help pay for the project, which has been in the works for about seven years.
Located just north of 37th Street and west of Broadway Avenue in northwest Rochester, the original plant was built in 1954 with upgrades in 1965 and 1980, Luckstein said in an interview Monday.
The plant has historically used chemicals to remove phosphorus from the water. The project, Luckstein said, will allow for biological phosphorus removal, “which can meet much lower levels than what we can do today.”
Adolfson & Peterson is overseeing construction and Brown and Caldwell has engineering duties.
Lino Lakes, for its part, received $32.5 million in low-interest loans and grants for construction of a new “8.6 MGD iron and manganese gravity filtration water treatment plant and associated facilities,” according to the MPFA.
Michael Grochala, Lino Lakes’ community development director, said in an email Monday that the project will remove manganese and iron from the city’s drinking water supply. Construction began in September and is expected to wrap up in fall 2026, Grochala said.
On its website, the MPFA says it provides financing and technical assistance, including the Drinking Water Revolving Fund, to “help communities build public infrastructure that protects public health and the environment and promotes economic growth.”
Through the Drinking Water Revolving Fund, the state has awarded 433 loans for roughly $982 million since 1999. The loans have created more than $188 million in interest savings for local governments and their taxpayers, the MPFA said.
Since its inception in 1987, the MPFA has provided $6.1 billion overall for public infrastructure programs statewide.
“The MPFA provides crucial financing and technical assistance to help communities build public infrastructure that protects public health and the environment,” Jeff Freeman, executive director of the MPFA, said in a press release. “Investing in the well-being of Minnesota’s infrastructure is a catalyst to economic growth and prosperity.”
Among other projects, the $265 million funding round also includes:
- $22.36 million for Kandiyohi County (phase two of the rehabilitation of a wastewater treatment facility).
- $22 million for the Lewis and Clark Joint Powers Board (a contribution to the Lewis and Clark Rural Water System, Inc. The project will help expand capacity to deliver additional water to the cities of Luverne and Worthington and the Lincoln Pipestone and Rock County Rural Water Systems).
- $24.85 million for Aurora (a new drinking water treatment plant, water intake and transmission lines to serve the city of Aurora and White Township).
- $22.67 million for Saint Cloud (a project to replace the existing force main from a lift station to the wastewater treatment facility and cover design costs for rehabilitation of the anaerobic digesters).
A complete list of funded projects is available at https://mn.gov/deed/newscenter/press-releases/.