Announcement – Interim Utilities Manager Named
Mr. Larry Koshire, prior General Manager for Rochester Public Utilities (RPU), was approved as Interim Utilities Manager of SPU at the September 21st commission meeting.
Mr. Koshire served as the General Manager of RPU for 17 years, retiring in 2014. Rochester is the state’s largest electric municipal utility with combined (electric and water) revenues of $180 million annually. Prior to RPU, he was the GM for Muscatine Power and Water, Muscatine, IA.
Mr. Koshire graduated from the University of MN Institute of Technology and is a registered Professional Engineer in Minnesota and Iowa. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and is active in numerous state and national boards, committees and professional organizations.
MN Dept of Health – Statement on Water Safety
Per Tannie Eshenaur, Planning Director/Drinking Water Protection of the Environmental Health Division at the Minnesota Department of Health, Shakopee city water meets all the requirements of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, including the drinking water standard for nitrate.
The drinking water standard for nitrate is 10 milligrams per liter (10 mg/L or 10 parts per million). The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) works in collaboration with the city utility to carefully watch water quality trends and take steps to prevent any violation of safe drinking water standards long before contaminant levels reach the limit. Together, they also take steps to protect the land area that drains to the city water supply (Drinking Water Supply Management Area) to keep contaminants out of the water and prevent additional treatment costs. Often that land is outside the city boundaries and may include both public and private land, making land-use changes to protect the water supply challenges.
Under Minnesota’s new Groundwater Protection Rule, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) restricts the application of nitrogen fertilizer applied to cropland in the fall and on frozen soils in Drinking Water Supply Management Areas where public wells have nitrate at or above 5.4 mg/L, which is lower than the drinking water standard. The restrictions begin September 1st of each year. Given the amount of development that has occurred in the Shakopee area in recent years, cropland acres and the associated fertilizer applications have likely decreased over time. If there are more questions about the Groundwater Protection Rule, you can contact our colleague at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Larry Gunderson (651-201-6168; Larry.Gunderson@state.mn.us).
We will be using this website to communicate with our customers in a timely and effective manner.
Power Outages/Emergencies
If SPU is experiencing a power outage, water emergency or we are performing some other unforeseen activity that may affect your utility services, you will see a scrolling banner at the top of our homepage. This will alert our customers that we are aware of the issue and are working on it. We will provide as much detail as possible regarding the area(s) affected.
Report an Outage
If you do not see the scrolling banner on the SPU homepage and are experiencing an outage or other emergency you can notify us by clicking on the “Report an Outage” button at the top of the homepage. This will send a notification to our Dispatch and/or after-hours service. The scrolling banner will be activated at that time.
If the banner has already been activated, but you don’t see your geographic area mentioned, please report your outage. In the event there are separate outages we want everyone to be promptly handled.
Scheduled Maintenance/Activities
Activities such as hydrant flushing, reconstruction projects, controlled electric outages or other planned events can be found under Events at the bottom of our homepage. Dates and descriptions are included in this area.
Miscellaneous Communications
Please frequent the Customer Communications page to stay in touch with what’s happening at SPU and view other topics of interest related to the utilities and you.
