Two Harbors schedules open house on $29.2 million wastewater overhaul

Residents got their first public look July 7 at Two Harbors’ $29.2 million wastewater overhaul, a three-year rebuild of the 64-year-old plant on Lighthouse Point Road. The city opened the Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., turning a major utility project into a public checkpoint on how the system will keep working while crews replace aging equipment.

The overhaul includes the city-owned facility, a Class A plant that continuously discharges to Lake Superior and is designed for an average flow of 1.2 million gallons per day. The plant also has a 2.5 million-gallon equalization basin to hold excess flows when conditions spike.

The rebuild includes a new treatment system with aeration basins, final clarifiers, biosolids treatment units, a mercury filter backwash supply tank and a new operations and controls building. The work also covers associated electrical and controls equipment, along with new equipment, lighting, pumps, piping, a sulfur dioxide feed system and an automated effluent sampler. The plant’s age and worn-out infrastructure drove the need for replacement and rehabilitation.

Operators previously had to divert domestic wastewater into the equalization basin for overnight treatment when flows spiked. On July 9, 2018, the plant logged 13 effluent violations in a single day.

In March 2022, Klobuchar, Smith and Stauber helped secure $3.5 million for Two Harbors wastewater infrastructure improvements. The upgrades are meant to improve treatment, reduce the risk of bypasses, protect receiving waters and safeguard public use of Lake Superior.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency regulates the design, construction and operation of municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and the Two Harbors plant remains under that oversight as the rebuild continues.