Corps of Engineers provides funds for sewer project in northern Minnesota

The Island View Sanitary Sewer Extension Project is located near Rainy Lake in Koochiching County, Minnesota. The project, which is covered under the Corps’ Environmental Infrastructure Assistance Program, will install permanent systems to replace the failing septic tanks in the gateway communities to the open waters of northern Minnesota. Bordering Canada, these open waters are of national and international significance, and the local communities are working to preserve the water quality and prevent contamination from failing septic tanks.

The project design is already 95 percent complete using Koochiching County funds, and the county has secured $8.35 million from the state of Minnesota. The $4.5 million in federal funding through the Corps’ Environmental Infrastructure Program, also known in Minnesota as the Section 569 program, will provide all the remaining funds needed to complete the project. The project will be beneficial to the Voyageur National Park, as it will connect to a new sewer line to be installed outside the park boundaries.

The work plan listing the amounts provided to various programs, projects and activities for each of the four appropriations accounts can be found at http://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/Budget.aspx.

The nearly 600 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, employees working at more than 40 sites in five upper-Midwest states serve the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood damage reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites and disaster response. Through the Corps’ Fiscal Year 2015 $100 million budget, nearly 1,600 non-Corps jobs were added to the regional economy as well as $155 million to the national economy. For more information, see www.mvp.usace.army.mil.

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