Sauk Rapids Utility Rates Rising as City Deals With PFAS Mitigation Costs

(KNSI) — The Sauk Rapids City Council heard from the finance department on Monday when it got a preview of the 2026 Enterprise Funds budget that will be brought forward in December for approval.

On average, rates for city services like water and sewer will go up by about 5%. Water is in the most trouble fiscally due to PFAS mitigation issues. Administrator Ross Olson is quick to point out the city has eliminated the threat from forever chemicals in two wells, but the there are still lingering financial problems to navigate through.

He notes, “What’s on the budget for next year isn’t to remedy PFAS. We’ve already done that by shutting down those two appropriate wells. This is to get our capacity back. There’s a finite amount of water in each well, and when you shut down two of them, that’s an amount of water that we’re no longer providing to our citizens, that we need to.”

In essence, public works had to fuse two distinct systems into one on the fly to make the new arrangement work. Previously, low-lying parts of the city, like those near the Mississippi River and through downtown, were serviced by one set of wells. PFAS affected the two primary well sites for this system.

Olson notes that prior to the PFAS issue, they were actually the lower maintenance variety compared to the higher elevation system. “All that water that never got sent to our water treatment plant, because the water treatment plant is actually treating iron and manganese. It’s that red stuff, and Wells Two and Three, our low pressure, didn’t have any iron manganese. But see, now, all the new wells that we have will be in that well field where we find iron manganese, and so that has to all go up to the water treatment plant, which it never did before.”

Three-million dollars in matching grants from the state is meant to help with the project, but city officials say an environmental review has stalled. They are still hoping to get started on the work next year. Previously, they had hoped to finish it by then.

Some other notes from the enterprise funds presentation. The stormwater fund is in line for the largest fee increase on a percentage-basis. It’s predicted to jump by $21 per household for the year. Sales at the municipal liquor store are down six figures through October with Sauk Rapids getting hit by a trend seen elsewhere in that younger residents are more likely to avoid alcohol. Sewer rates are proposed to bump up 2.5% related to Sauk Rapids’ portion of the debt of the regional wastewater treatment facility operated by St. Cloud.

As part of the consent agenda, the council signed off on the new early childhood learning center, varsity athletic complex, and garage addition being built by the school district.

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