Wastewater & Water

Clean water and a clean environment are essential to a healthy life, and the Metropolitan Council's Environmental Services division is committed to both.

We treat wastewater for 111 cities and townships with 2.8 million people in the Twin Cities metro area, monitor air and water quality, and plan for a long-range water supply to meet future demand.

We consistently achieve near-perfect compliance with federal and state water discharge standards while holding customer rates to 35% below the national average. We have significantly cut our purchased energy costs in the wastewater system and continue to reduce our climate impacts. 

The Met Council's Environment Committee addresses issues of sewer policy and planning, environmental reviews, wastewater facilities and treatment, water supply, nonpoint-source pollution, and federal and state regulations.

Mission

We partner, plan, and provide services to protect our region's water.

Vision

Clean water for future generations

Living our values

• We pursue excellence within Met Council by encouraging innovation, continuous improvement, and striving for outstanding performance.
• We embrace inclusiveness in all its dimensions recognizing that everyone has something to contribute to the success of the organization.
• We demonstrate integrity by meeting high ethical standards, building trust, and being transparent to our stakeholders.
• We foster respect by listening, and encouraging understanding and honesty in how we treat each other.
• We demonstrate commitment by furthering our mission, meeting our customer needs, and being an engaged and accountable workforce.

Wastewater collection and treatment

Whenever someone in the Twin Cities takes a shower, flushes a toilet, or runs a washing machine, the used water is routed to one of our wastewater treatment plants through an extensive network of local and regional sanitary sewer pipes. We own, operate, and maintain the Twin Cities metro regional wastewater collection and treatment system, which includes:

• 634 miles of regional sanitary sewers
• 231 metering stations
• 60 lift stations
• 9 wastewater treatment facilities

The system collects and treats an average of 250 million gallons per day; almost 70% of this is processed at the Metropolitan Water Resource Recovery Facility in Saint Paul. The total amount of wastewater treated in 2021 was 82.3 billion gallons. Learn more about wastewater treatment.

Water resources planning and protection

By 2040, the Twin Cities region is projected to grow by 500,000 people. Protecting, conserving, and utilizing the region’s groundwater and surface water in ways that protect public health, support economic growth and development, maintain habitat and ecosystem health, and provide for recreational opportunities is essential to our region’s quality of life and the driver behind the work we do in water resources planning and management and water supply planning.

Learn more about our role in water quality management throughout the region.

More about wastewater and water