Cities across southern Minnesota are experiencing a shortage of water and wastewater operators. Southeast Minnesota cities work together to solve issues as members of the Southeastern Minnesota League of Municipalities (SEMLM), the only regional organization of cities in our state. The SEMLM serves over 80 member cities across the eleven counties of southeast Minnesota. Partnering with cities in south central and southwestern Minnesota, the SEMLM is addressing the shortage to help the entire southern tier of the state.
During the 2024 legislative session, the SEMLM sought a state appropriation of $350,000 to be administered by the City of Austin for creation of two new training programs at Riverland Community College, one for water facility operators, and the other for wastewater facility operators.
Senator John Jasinski (District 19) and Representative Patricia Mueller (District 23B) authored the SEMLM bill in the Senate and House. Senator Gene Dornink (District 23) worked with the SEMLM and other senators during many steps of the legislative process. Reaching out to cities all the way from La Crescent to Luverne, and to their legislators, the SEMLM built a broad and strong base of bi-partisan legislative support for inclusion of the request in the Senate and House Jobs Omnibus bill passed by both houses, and recently signed by Governor Walz.
Creation of the new programs will follow training guidelines from the respective state agencies, the MN Department of Health (MDH) for water facilities, and the MN Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for wastewater facilities. Riverland Community College has a long history of providing customized programs for city services, such as firefighter and EMT training. Riverland’s President Kathleen Linaker is very pleased to have Riverland continue to expand their services to communities throughout southern Minnesota. She views this as a core function for the college.
The state appropriation will be available over the next three years, with the programs continuing to offer training for years to come. The state appropriation funds the creation of both programs and the marketing of them through Riverland and the Workforce Centers across southern Minnesota to assist with recruitment. Cities will continue to pay for their employees to attend the training, as the appropriation is specifically for program creation, marketing, and recruitment.
These professional training programs are a key part of protecting our environment and keeping all residents safe and healthy. Southern Minnesota’s regional economy is stronger when water and wastewater facilities are managed well.
Key points related to the new training programs
Water and wastewater operators are necessary for cities to manage
- water quality and water supply,
- wellhead protection,
- handling the flow for the wastewater system,
- meeting the needs of the local economy (residents, businesses of all types, schools, churches, etc.),
- and to protect the natural environment.
The Solution has three components:
- Bring the training closer to ‘home’ for southern Minnesota cities at Riverland Community College.
- Having it closer to ‘home’ works better with busy family schedules, and creates fewer childcare issues.
- It reduces city costs for trainees’ travel, so more training can happen.
- Reducing the time away for training means less city expense to find other trained operators from outside the city to ‘cover’ at their city’s facilities.
- Increase recruitment in new ways through
- Riverland Community College and
- Workforce Centers across southern MN.
- Bring in more partners to help move this forward.
The Partners:
- Riverland Community College
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- create customized training programs for both water and wastewater operators
- offer career counseling (recruitment),
- bring the training ‘closer to home’ with
- online options and
- in-person courses that are closer for southern MN cities
- Workforce Centers
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- career information (recruitment),
- information on cities looking to hire and train new operators
- services to help people match their skills to career options
- assistance to find their career and employer match
- Local State Legislators–
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- advocate to other state legislators about the benefits this solution brings to southern MN and the rest of the state.
- guide the SEMLM appropriation bill through the legislative process
- City of Austin
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- serve as the fiscal agent
- administer the funds
- keep the records to submit to the state
- MDH and MPCA
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- guidance on course curriculum and training requirements
- SEMLM
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- bring partners together and support partners as needed
- keep SEMLM cities informed, ready to support the programs
- connect cities from south central and southwest to share in this
- serve as the communication hub
Next steps:
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- Create an Advisory Committee to work with Riverland staff
- city officials, SEMLM
- experienced operators,
- contacts from MDH and MPCA as needed
- Begin curriculum development
- develop training for people of all ages (not just recent high school graduates),
- use guidelines from MDH and MPCA,
- align courses with preparation for taking/passing state licensing exams
- Create informational materials for recruiting through Riverland and Workforce Centers,
- Keep cities across southern MN informed, ready to participate.
Who benefits from this?
- Southern MN cities
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- water/wastewater operators and
- city residents
- Cities not in southern MN
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- enlarges the statewide pool of operators for all cities in MN
- southern MN cities less likely to hire operators away from cities in other parts of the state
- Residents adjacent to cities who come to facilities in cities, such as
-
- businesses,
- schools,
- churches,
- libraries, etc.
- Manufacturers, other businesses, and employees who use these services, and often heavily depend on them,
- Visitors to city residents
- Tourists
- Future generations benefit as we protect our waterways and water sources.