Essay
All legislators should vote yes on HF3752; A bill for an act relating to capital investment; appropriating money for metropolitan cities inflow and infiltration grants; authorizing the sale and issuance of state bonds, because it strives to provide more funding to reduce metropolitan inflow and infiltration, creating safer, cleaner water and better sewage processing in the metropolitan area, and will save the state money on treatment plant renovations.
Inflow and infiltration is when Ground Water gets into sanitary sewer and water pipes putting strain on the wastewater treatment system. MCES estimates that about 20% of wastewater is inflow and infiltration, indicating that change needs to be made. Increased inflow and infiltration leads to backups within wastewater treatment plants taking up unnecessary space and can cause costly spills leading to sewer backups. These backups can cause basement flooding and wastewater to overflow into homes which can be hazardous. Having wastewater overflow into a house not only is an ordeal to clean, but is also a health hazord as wastewater carries viruses, including COviD-19. Bill HF3752 is a necessary step in preventing these backups and protecting the residents of the metropolitan area.
According to the Metropolitan Council “80% of I/I comes from private sources, including defective sewer service lines and improperly connected sump pumps, downspouts, and foundation drains.” All of these lead to an excessive amount of inflow and infiltration. Excessive inflow and infiltration means that more money needs to be spent building bigger treatment plants and sewer pipes. Instead of letting it get to this point we need to invest in educating homeowners, create inspection teams, and work to solve the problem at its root. This will save money in the long run and is exactly what Bill HF3752 aims to do.
Bill HF3752 will appropriate $15,000,000 to the Metropolitan Council for inflow and infiltration grants. This amount will be provided by selling and issuing bonds from the state to fill the appropriated amount. Investors can buy these bonds as a way to support the state. The Metropolitan Council can then put this money into programs that help to inspect sump pumps, educate homeowners, and other important programs that will help to reduce inflow and infiltration within the metropolitan area. Many homeowners may not know the consequences of increased inflow and infiltration and may not be interested in creating solutions or may think that it is unimportant. This viewpoint, however, will only worsen the situation. With more funding the Met Council can send teams to educate homeowners so that they can help be a solution to inflow and infiltration, something that Bill HF3752 is striving to do.
Increased money to put into solutions to inflow and infiltration also means that more surveys on wastewater will be able to be done. Wastewater carries viruses and is an excellent way to monitor virus levels in a population. To this day surveys are done through the state on wastewater to collect data on the levels of COVID-19 cases. This is incredibly important data to have because it will help us to prepare and monitor how many people are still getting sick and find solutions. Bill HF3752 focuses on inflow and infiltration but will also be impactful on surveys done on wastewater across the board.
In conclusion all legislatures should vote yes on Bill HF3752 because it will create more funding to reduce inflow and infiltration, keeping the residents of the metropolitan area safer and providing cleaner water. It will help to provide long term solutions, saving the state money, and lastly will help to monitor wastewater more carefully. Overall, Bill HF3752 strives to provide more funding to reduce metropolitan inflow and infiltration, creating safer, cleaner water and better sewage processing in the metropolitan area, saving the state money on wastewater renovations.
