.jpg.aspx?lang=en-US&width=350&height=323 "Grants will help cities repair sanitary sewer pipes and maintenance holes to reduce inflow and infiltration of clear water.")
The Metropolitan Council will make $15 million in state funding available to 81 eligible cities in 2026-2027 for projects that reduce the amount of clear water getting into publicly owned sewer pipes.
Since 2010, the Met Council has allocated more than $51 million to cities to repair cracked pipes and leaky maintenance holes, eliminate cross connections between sanitary and stormwater pipes, and make other repairs to reduce inflow and infiltration (I/I) of clear water into wastewater pipes.
“These investments have helped save hundreds of millions of dollars that would otherwise have been spent to expand regional wastewater collection and treatment capacity to treat the excess clear water, which doesn’t require treatment,” explained Council Member Wendy Wulff, chair of the Met Council’s Environment Committee. “These grants represent excellent stewardship of expensive infrastructure that we all depend on every day.”
The 2025 funding will be divided into two programs:
- The traditional municipal I/I grant program ($9 million)
- A pilot municipal I/I river grants program ($6 million) for cities that have shown a historic correlation between high river elevation and high monthly flow rates. Cities eligible for the pilot program include Bayport, Chaska, Minneapolis, Newport, Saint Paul, and Stillwater.
The grants may cover up to 50% of eligible costs, or up to100% for repairs that meet affordability criteria set in state law.
Grant applications for both programs will be sent to eligible cities by Dec. 31, 2025, and will be due back from cities by Jan. 30, 2026. Eligible work must be completed between Jan. 1, 2026 and Dec. 31, 2027.
The Met Council’s Environmental Services division collects wastewater from more than 90% of the population of the seven-county metro area and treats it at nine water resource recovery facilities. Almost all of the treated water is released to area rivers where it improves the water quality of those rivers.
Grant guidelines will be posted by Dec. 19.