Description of DCI Role: Permitting, Monitoring
Project Team Leader(s): Jerry Cole
Project Cost: Confidential
Time Period of Project Work: 2000 - 2004
Client: Svoboda Ecological Resources
Client Representative: Frank Svoboda

Project Description
ML Wastewater Management, Inc. (MLWMI, a not-for-profit corporation of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians Corporate Commission) is in the process of upgrading the wastewater treatment system for businesses and residences near the southwest corner of Mille Lacs Lake, located in north-central Minnesota. The wastewater treatment plant, designated as the ML Wastewater Treatment Facility (MLWTF), will provide service to the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indian Reservation and three nearby municipalities. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit will allow discharge of treated effluent from the MLWTF to an existing natural wetland. Outflow from the wetland enters a lake and eventually enters the Rum River.

A special condition of the NPDES permit stipulates that ML Wastewater Management, Inc. (MLWMI) must develop and implement a wetland monitoring/protection plan to demonstrate that the permitted discharge does not cause significant adverse impacts to the wetland and downstream waters. DCI personnel teamed with Svoboda Ecological Resources (SER) of Excelsior, Minnesota and Wetland Management Services of Chelsea, Michigan in developing a monitoring plan to meet the NPDES permit requirements. The plan included baseline and ongoing monitoring of wetland surface water quality, water and nutrient balance, and vegetation surveys.