"I congratulate the Pike Lake Wastewater Committee and your area legislators for the vision and dedication they have shown in the effort that soon will culminate in a new sewage collection system serving the Pike Lake area. Credit also is due to the many local jurisdictions which cooperated in crafting this solution.

This project is a big step forward in an area that has become more of a focus for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, one which we call "unsewered communities." The problem the Pike Lake area has been experiencing is shared by many other areas of the state. These are places where growth and development, while in many cases not large-scale enough to justify a new wastewater treatment plant, have outstripped the ability of on-site sewer systems to deal with them.

The good old "septic system" which we are all familiar with continues to be a viable option for treating wastewater. But it becomes a problem when there are too many of them in a small area, and when they discharge too close to local water resources. Add to that the fact that the majority of older septic systems in Minnesota are not treating wastewater adequately, and you have a real problem for the environment and, potentially, human health. That indeed has been the case in the Pike Lake area and so we are really pleased to see this problem finally being resolved.

The way this problem was solved, starting with local initiative, followed up by local-government assistance and cooperation, then aided by creative and flexible use of state assistance, is the way we see more of these problems being solved in the future.

In fact, we believe so much in this model, of local jurisdictions working cooperatively to connect areas with failing septics to existing treatment plants, that the Legislature recently modified state law to give this type of situation higher priority for funding.

So again, our hats are off to everyone who worked so hard to make this project a reality."