VICTORIA LIFT STATIONS AND CULVERT
AFFECTING SCHUTZ LAKE AND LAKE VIRGINIA

August 11th

Administrator Steve Sarvi spoke about the lift station down at Schutz Lake.  "If it fails," he said, "the raw sewage dumps into Schutz Lake.  I believe it's to the city's advantage to upgrade this sewer."
He said that upgrading the sewer, along with the future (2007) street recon-struction project in the Smithtown area of Victoria, will also alleviate the longtime odor problem at the Smithtown crossing with Hwy 7. 
How is the Schutz Lake lift station re-lated to the Smithtown culvert?
According to Administrator Sarvi, "It involves a proposed Met Council project to tunnel the sanitary sewer from the Schutz Lake lift station (located on Rolling Acres Road just south of the Mount Olivet property) to an area just north of the culvert at Smithtown that runs between Lake Virginia and Lake Minnetonka …
"Any modifications to the culvert could affect the water flow between the lakes …
"This tunnel project is needed because of the elevation change due to the hill between the lift station and Smithtown Road.  Long term, removing the lift sta-tion is in the best interest of the City of Victoria and the Met Council.  When lift stations fail, the margin of error is razor thin.  The options include bypassing the system into the lake - not a good option at all!"
City Planner Eric Zweber noted that an option for infrastructure improvements is "the raising and replacing of the city-owned and maintained culvert under Smithtown Road between Lake Minne-tonka and Lake Virginia  The raising of the culvert would allow a gravity trunk sewer line to run under the culvert, as opposed to the current forcemain that runs over the existing culvert."
City Engineer Jack Griffin noted five issues that have been "historically un-resolved" regarding the culvert under Smithtown Road, including odor prob-lems, erosion, navigation between lakes.
City staff has requested that the Met Council, DNR, and Minnehaha Creek Watershed District address concerns of the Victoria residents during the permit review process.  Staff and council held a workshop on August 25^th to discuss how residents and agencies could all be involved in resolving the issue.

August 25^th

Victoria councilmembers and staff met with representatives of the DNR and the Metropolitan Council and their engineers at a workshop prior to the Au-gust 25^th council meeting.  The Watershed District was not able to attend.
It was reported by Chuck Janski of Bonestroo Engineers that all five lift stations in the Victoria area will run out of capacity in the future, and the Schutz Lake lift station fairly soon.
"What we're trying to do is delete lift stations and get to gravity flow," he said.  Tunnels 100 feet deep will be necessary to eliminate the Schutz Lake and Smithtown lift stations … Lift stations are mechanical devices and are subject to power failure."
In eliminating the Smithtown lift sta-tion and building the box culvert, Smithtown Road would be out of commission for a time, especially as the project would be done in conjunction with the city's street reconstruction project.
"The Metropolitan Council would participate in street reconstruction, which would reduce the overall cost to the city," he said.
A deep gravity flow sewer line would be located below a new box culvert in the channel between Lake Virginia and Lake Minnetonka.  "This does raise the bottom of the culvert by two feet," said Chuck Janski, "which means some disconnect at times between the lakes.  Modifications can be made.  This is our first look at it together."
He said that many of the sewer lines will be near capacity by the year 2020, and that some action is necessary.  He said that installing a box culvert and gravity sewer line - along with road re-construction at Smithtown - could mess up the area for up to an entire year.
People living north of the culvert, such as residents at the Harborage, could access Highway 7 by cutting over to Eureka Street.  People living south of the culvert, including those at Smithtown Ter-race and Virginia Shores Circle, would not lose direct access to Highway 7.

Click here to continue Culvert/Channel story.