The Duluth City Council has received a new plan from Mayor Don Ness to upgrade the city's sewer system and reduce overflows into Lake Superior.
The ordinance, reviewed at tonight's council agenda session, would impose a $5.57 surcharge on all sewer customers -- almost half the amount in Ness' original proposal. It also would put the entire responsibility for financing private sewer line repairs on property owners. Ness' original plan would have offered some city help for the repairs, which could cost as much as $8,000.
The city is under orders from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to eliminate sewer overflows into the lake. They have threatened to stop all development in the city if action isn't taken to reverse the situation.
