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materials, website postings, maps, establishes links to city websites, establishes links to county and state
transportation.
Statewide Water Summit – lead with 5 state agencies and governor’s staff, set agenda for water investment
regionally and statewide for the next 3 years.
Active in newly formed Minnesota Sustainable Growth Coalition, an innovative public/private sector partnership
focused on energy, food and water sustainability for statewide economic competitiveness through circular
economy principles. MCES is working with fortune 500 companies as a sponsor and participant to implement
water sustainability practices in public and private sectors.
MN Technology Assistance Program (MNTAP) collaboration helps state university, MCES and private sector
industry conserve water resources to reduce aquifer demand, use less energy, and decrease pressure on
wastewater system capacity, ultimately saving dollars and water resources regionally.
$500,000 Regional water efficiency grant program partners with communities to incentivize household water
use reduction through high efficiency fixture and irrigation replacements. $1M regional stormwater reuse grant
program incentivizes collaboration between watershed organizations and cities to invest in community
recreational and educational assets, with an emphasis on equity, while reducing demand on groundwater using
green infrastructure and stormwater (re)use systems.
5 subregional water sustainability groups serving the 3 million population region coordinate water reuse,
groundwater recharge and other water supply, stormwater use and wastewater reuse opportunities. Active
engagement through a formal regional Metropolitan Area Water Supply Advisory Committee (policy setting) and
Technology Advisory Committee to guide regional planning for water sustainability. Adopted regional water
resources planning policy emphasizing triple bottom line for investments in terms of sustainability, prosperity,
equity, livability, and stewardship through integration, collaboration and accountability for 200+ communities
representing over 3M residents.
Energy and Sustainability Collaboration: MCES participates (and leads for the Met. Council) many environmental
groups in this area including the Metro Energy Coalition (with metro counties and the metro airport commission),
the state Environmental Quality Board (several state agencies and citizen reps), 3 other agency (mostly state
agencies) teams (Environment and Climate, Interagency Pollution Prevention Advisory Team, Interagency Climate
Adaptation Team), and Clean Air Minnesota (a public private coalition focused on air quality criteria pollutants.
Within the Met. Council we lead an interdivisional (including transit and transit planning; community
development, parks, housing) Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Team and were a founding
member of the Climate Registry (and still report all our GHG emissions). We also work with, help and collaborate
with the University of Minnesota, the state Science Museum and many in Minnesota’s rich non-profit community
(among them: the Environmental Initiative, Great Plains Institute, Fresh Energy, Community Energy Resource
Teams, District Energy). An example is the nation-leading e21 initiative to improve the business model for Investor
Owned Utilities in the 21
st
century given disruptive changes such as accelerating conservation, distributed
generation, EV and smart grid appliance adoption.
One-water collaboration: MCES staff participate in many organizations, local and national working in this space.
Among these are our water monitoring work with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and citizen volunteers ,
NACWA, WERF, CSWEA, US Water Alliance, metro Watershed District organizations, the Minnesota Clean Water
Funds’ Interagency Coordinating team, Minnesota Headwaters Fund Advisory Council (working for source
protection). Right now, we have staff working on leading conferences for the national APWA, Central States Water
Environment Association (CSWEA), Minnesota Water Resources Conference, and the Joint Minnesota
Wastewater Operators/CSWEA innovations Conference.
.
Your Performance Measure(s)
Your Results (quantitative or qualitative)
Improve customer service and outreach
during interceptor rehabilitation projects
through implementation of a
communication plan
•
MCES currently has 28 projects listed on its website with 6000
subscribers to GovDelivery (a electronic subscription service
for newsletter delivery)
•
MCES conducts project open houses during the design, and
preconstruction phases on the project. Attendance numbers
vary based on the neighborhood disturbed, but can range
from 7 -80 people.