Turtle Creek Development in Minnetrista

Turtle Creek residents are also having the same issue as the Hunters Crest residents. Not surprising considering all of our water comes from the same treatment plant. Some questions we have been asking ourselves is WHY where residents the first to notice this purple water? Who watches and maintains the treatment plant and how often? When there is a malfunction this large how come the city workers aren't the first to know? What if they DID know and made a executive decision to not relay the information to the residents. Either way it shouldn't take phone calls from residents to let the city know that their new equipment has failed. You failed us Minnetrista. 

Hot water on the left. Cold water on the right. 

Purple water has Minnetrista residents terrified of their water safety.

Residents in Hunters Crest spent Sunday afternoon prepping for the Vikings game and wondering if the purple water coming out of their taps was merely a prank made by a city employee. While some thought of it a hilarious coincidence by posting "SKOL!" and "Even Minnetrista Bleeds Purple" it spurred other conversations from residents about filing class action lawsuits. Residents have had a LONG history of bad water but this last episode has been the "straw that broke the camels back". Around 3pm yesterday residents started noticing the discolored water and took quickly to a private Facebook page to post pictures and concerns. Almost 24 hours later and residents are still seeing purple running in the water even after multiple hydrant flashings the city organized to help combat the problem. They also told multiple residents that it was safe to use and drink while the MHD told residents a different story urging residents to in NO WAY ingest the water. As a resident of Hunters Crest I am very disappointed that it took until noon today for the city to post any information on their website about the incident and that we were not contacted directly via email or phone calls to be told what they are doing to try and solve the problem. Here is a link to where you can see updates on this city-wide fail. 

http://www.cityofminnetrista.com/home-news-2/water-concerns-mechanical-failure-information

Dear Resident,

MDH is aware of the pink water complaints in Minnetrista.

The city has had problems with their permanganate chemical feed at the water treatment plant, resulting in a pink water incident. The permanganate is used by the city help remove iron and manganese out of the water. The city has turned off the chemical feed pump to make repairs. When your utility has notified you that they have completed flushing of the distribution system and that the water is safe to drink, you should run the water from all your plumbing fixtures until the pink water turns clear.

Water with permanganate can have higher than normal manganese and have a pink color. For health information about manganese please see our website:

Manganese in Drinking Water (http://www.health.state.mn.us/.../contamin.../manganese.html)

The city is updating their messaging to residents and the media, telling them to:

(1) flush their plumbing systems, and

(2) not drink the water when it is pink.

Please contact your city for the most up-to-date information and guidance.

Anna Jeanne Schliep
Compliance Engineer

Hunters Crest resident Feb 10th

Hunters Crest Resident Feb 9th 2016

Drinking-water tests were flawed, state Health Department admits

"Lab tests for hundreds of Minnesota’s community drinking water systems may have underreported the level of some contaminants for the past two decades, the state Department of Health said Thursday."


http://www.startribune.com/drinking-water-tests-were-flawed-state-health-department-admits/368509051/

But there is not a problem right Minnetrista?

GOVERNOR DAYTON TO THE RESCUE?

I guess we'll just do some more waiting and see.

"Alarmed about the rising levels of contamination in Minnesota's lakes, rivers and wetlands, Gov. Mark Dayton said he'll convene a statewide water quality summit in February."

http://m.startribune.com/dayton-to-convene-water-quality-summit/352812131/

THESE PICTURES LOOK FAMILIAR

Maybe all Flint needs is more Chlorine and Hydrant Flushings? Right Minnetrista?

SOURCE:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3402157/People-Flint-Michigan-share-horrifying-pictures-water-told-safe-drink.html

SIGNING UP FOR HYDRANT FLUSHING WARNINGS

At the March 16th City Council Meeting, City Administrator Michael Barone mentioned they lost all the previous addresses from before. If you want to be on the email notification list, follow the instructions below from the city website. It is disappointing they used "whenever possible" in regards to emailing.


Join the Email Notification List


•If you want to be on the notification list, please click on the email address hyperlink below and send us your name and home address. We will send email notifications to interested residents whenever possible in regards to flushing schedules and other water treatment related topics, as warranted.


pworks@ci.minnetrista.mn.us

APRIL 6TH COUNCIL MEETING

CITY COUNCIL MARCH 16 - THE TIMELINE PROMISE

Part 1

Part 2

Such a great turn out from the City of Minnetrista city water users. Conversations became very intense. It's taken me a long time to post these. I stood up as a person to be hear with a lot of other people I know from Hunters Crest. This was my first time addressing the new mayor and council. I felt very put out by the Mrs. Whalen and did not feel as if I was being taken seriously by her or a few of the other council members and city staff workers. I had other reach out after the meeting and say they felt the same way. It's really unfortunate that someone who is supposed to be a representative for us can purposely make you feel so inferior and insignificant.

I'd also like to point out that not everyone who voted for the centralized system last year voted because it was the "cheapest" option. A lot of people I know and myself voted for it because of its efficiencies with the concrete tanks vs steel and it's ability to be easily upgraded to an RO system. 

BLUE WATER

If it's not orange it's blue! Who needs yummy bath salts when you have gobs of chlorine? This photo was taken last night. Nothing was added to the water and as always no photo filters were used on this photo. Yuck.

FEBRUARY 17TH MINNETRISTA CITY COUNCIL MEETING

43:30
Approving the scope for services (design bidding and construction service) for the water treatment facilities.

Decentralized and where?

SITE 1:
North Segment - An independent unit until development can connected it to the central plant. Built for expansion.

SITE 2 :
South West Segment - Kings Point RD being built for expansion.

SITE 3:
Hunters Crest - A possible addition for a future date.

SUM IT UP:
For Hunters Crest the water would still continue to travel a long distance to get to us with the building of the first two sites, 2.5 miles in a 12 inch water main to be exact. Though the pressure would change which is better for fire fighting to1500 gallons/min. with that long travel there is still room for the water to collect sediment along the way.

We should see the plan on where this water tower weather above or below ground is slated to go. I'm pretty sure no one wants to look out their window inside the development and see a large blue tower.

Somewhere between 2007-2010 the city bought $440,000 of land out of the water and sewer fund in hopes to one day use that land for water infrastructures. That has not happened and is not scoped to happen with this new plan. It would only be fair that the city pay back that money to the water fund in order to keep our water rates down as the decentralized system is developed. The mayor left it was a "discussion she is will to have at a later date".

The completion of this project is projected to be between 2017-2010.....we don't have that kind of time.

MONDAY MARCH 2ND COUNCIL MEETING

15:40
Wellhead Protection Water talk. This is the completion of a mandated task put in action by the MN Dept of Health. The city is required to complete part 2 of this protection plan by Dec. 31st 2015. It will cost the city $13,898.

41:34
The water treatment plant RFP was only "anticipated" to be issued on March 3rd and proposals from consults would be due on March 25th. Then they are looking to have those proposals reviewed by Dept heads and give a recommendation back to the council on April 6th.

Also they mentioned that they had gone through a couple comments from the MN Dept of Healths comments on some of the pilot studies. They mention there was some "biological issues" the Dept of Health had on whatever water treatment plant that was decided upon Mainly revolving around the heavy iron and manganese removal process. The "biological issues" were not questioned on camera.

42:59
The Public Works has also found that there are two wells (3 and 5) that they have found that have NO recording of maintenance being preformed on them, ever. Maintenance should be preformed every seven years. They assume its most likely 4 years past dues its inspection. Which mean Lisa would have been on the council in 2010 when this maintenance should have been preformed. One of the wells is assumed to be almost 15 years old. Well 5 is a priority to have fixed based on some "findings" by public works. Those "findings" were not mentioned in the meeting.  When they plan on taking care of this problem (hopefully in May) the are going to ask the City of Mound if they can hook up to their water temporarily that will last about a month. This will cost the city an unknown amount of money. The well maintenance RFPs are scheduled to be seen on March 16th.

Acting city engineer updates the mayor on two Minnetrista wells that have NO RECORD of ever being maintenanced. To sum it up the w

To learn more about the Wellhead Protection Plan go here:
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/water/swp/whp/#info

LETTER FROM ANONYMOUS RESIDENT

All residents and street names have been deleted from this email I received this week.
I have two friends that have had a combined 3 toilets clog with water sediment and a washing machine as well. All of these situations were in homes built 9 years. They were told the water damage was a result of sediment in the pipes that built up so much that water couldn't get through so water found a different way out... through the floors, through the ceilings and thousands of dollars damage.

I fear this happening in our house too. Thoughts on a class action suit?

WATER IN PAINTERS CREEK MINNETRISTA THIS WEEK

SAVE THE DATE: MARCH 16TH @ 7PM A SPECIAL WATER MEETING WILL BE HELD

I reached out to our Mayor Lisa Whalen yesterday with about 25 other interested residents attached to the email. We did not hear back from her unfortunately but we did hear back from city administrator Mike Barone. The email was not a reply all so I am posting here for you all to see.


Ms. Jensen, Ms. Dominy, and Mr. Fiscus:

All of you have emailed me in the last few days about the water quality issues in your neighborhood. We appreciate your emails and concerns, and we want to try to address your concerns as soon as possible.

On our Council Agenda each meeting, we have a “Special Presentations” section that we generally utilize for outside groups or agencies to come and present information to the Council. But at the Monday, March 16, 2015 meeting, which begins at 7:00pm, we would like to give a presentation instead of receive a presentation.

During the Special Presentation section of the Council meeting next Monday, City Staff would like to give residents an presentation to update you in regards to the status of where Minnetrista is with the water treatment issue. We hope that our presentation will answer a lot of your questions. If not, we will allow time for residents to ask questions at the end of the presentation.

We do have a fairly busy agenda that evening, so I don’t know exactly how much time we will dedicate to answering questions from residents, but I believe we can get most questions answered. If not, we can always schedule some other time to discuss this issue, whether that is at a future Council meeting or a separate meeting.

What I am asking you to do is to let your neighbors know of our intent to address the water quality issue with a presentation followed by a Q & A session at the Monday, March 16 Council meeting. As you know, we do have limited seating in the Council Chambers, but we will try to accommodate as many people as we can that want to attend.

Again, thanks for your concerns and emails. We do understand your situation, and are trying to provide a legitimate, long-term, and cost-conscious solution for water treatment in Minnetrista.

Michael Barone
City Administrator

9AM THIS MORNING IN HUNTERS CREST

Another resident with unacceptable water running out of their kitchen faucets.

WELCOME SPRING AKA MINNETRISTA HYDRANT FLUSHING SEASON

This picture was taken tonight by a resident of Hunters Crest around 5pm this evening.

There are more than a few things that bother me about this picture. I myself had similar water come out of my own faucets in 2013 and still there are no solutions in the works to fix Minnetrista's water. Another friend of mine had similar water come out of his faucets in 2008!! This water is toxic. It's not ok even during a flushing. Last spring the prior council members at least helped give residents a heads up with email warnings about flushings, posted signs at the entrances of Hunters Crest and they promised not to do the flushings during the times of the day when families would most likely be home preparing meals, doing laundry and bathing their babies before bed. What happened to our warnings? What happened to the water progress that was made? The fact the the residents of Hunters Crest and the other Minnetrista developments that use city water do not have reliably clean, clear and consistent water is ludicrous and completely unexceptable. We shouldn't have to pay extra household money on whole house carbon filters and drinking water filters because we can't trust out elected officials to do the right thing. It's sad that new squad cars are a priority over the health of the residents. FIX IT. 

MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBER CONTACTS

Mayor
Lisa Whalen (term expires 12-16)

lwhalen@ci.minnetrista.mn.us
(612) - 900 - 9556

Council member
Bob Christians (term expires 12-16)

bchristians@ci.minnetrista.mn.us
(612) - 791 - 0006

Council member
Mark Vanderlinde (term expires 12-16)

mvanderlinde@ci.minnetrista.mn.us
(612) - 791 - 0054

Council member
Pam Mortenson (term expires 12-18)

pmortenson@ci.minnetrista.mn.us
(612) - 791 - 2035

Council member
Patricia Thoele (term expires 12-18)

pthoele@ci.minnetrista.mn.us
(612) - 791 - 1637

STAFF CONTACTS

ADMINISTRATION

Michael Barone, City Administrator
952-446-1660
mbarone@ci.minnetrista.mn.us

Joan Sandquist, Administrative Aide
952-446-1660
jsandquist@ci.minnetrista.mn.us



PUBLIC WORKS

Gary Peters, Public Works Superintendent
952-446-1660
gpeters@ci.minnetrista.mn.us

Paul Hornby, City Engineer (WSB Engineering)
952-446-1660
phornby@ci.minnetrista.mn.us