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State Drought Plan
With more than 50 percent of Minnesota experiencing severe drought and some areas experiencing extreme drought, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has determined that the state is now in the drought warning phase. With this designation, the DNR and others are asking for additional steps such as restricting some water uses.
The State Drought Plan specifies actions that water suppliers must implement once the state is elevated to drought warning phase.
Effective Immediately: The City of St. Francis will be implementing watering restrictions effective immediately, per the direction of the DNR.
- If you live on the west side of the river and your address ends in an odd number, you will be able to irrigate on Mondays. If you live on the west side of the river and you have an address that ends in an even number, you will be able to irrigate on Tuesdays.
- If you live on the east side of the river and your address ends in an odd number, you will be able to irrigate on Thursdays. If you live on the east side of the river and have an address that ends in an even number, you will be able to irrigate on Fridays.
- No watering shall occur between the hours of 10:00am and 7:00 pm.
If you have any questions, call Public Works at 763-233-5200.
Water System Information
The City of St. Francis gets it water from 3 deep wells; one is finished in the Mt. Simon aquifer and two are finished in a Quaternary Buried Artesian aquifer. The distribution system consists of approximately 35 miles of water main, 344 fire hydrants, 568 gate valves, and approximately 1,500 water service connections. The City’s water tower has a storage capacity of 750,000 gallons. An additional 1.2 Million Gallons of storage are available at the recently constructed Water Treatment Plant. Chlorine and fluoride are added to the water for disinfection and dental hygiene. An orthophosphate is added for corrosion control in your interior plumbing.
Water Restrictions
A person may water sprinkle, irrigate, or otherwise use water from the City Water System for lawn areas, grass, or turf (hereinafter referred to as "irrigation" or "irrigate") only on alternating days between May 1st and continuing until September 30th of each year. This prohibition is in effect from 10am until 7pm each day during this period.
Alternating days means that property with an address ending in an ODD number may irrigate only on odd-numbered days of the month and property with an address ending in an even number may irrigate only on even-numbered days of the month.
*Owners and lessees (their employees and agents) of lands newly sodded or grass seeded which requires irrigation to prevent loss of the new sod, seed, or immature turf or grasses for a period of thirty (30) days, when in receipt of a permit for such activity from the Public Works Director or designee.
Fun Facts About the St. Francis Water Treatment Plant:
1. This facility can supply 4.3 million gallons of water per day, if needed.
2. On a daily average, we supply about 550,000 gallons of water per day.
3. Our hightest summer total is about 1,500,000 million gallons per day. Our winter average is about 350,000 gallons per day.
4. On any given day, the city has over 1 million gallons of water in storage.
5. The Water Tower can hold 750,000 gallons of water.
6. The Water Treatment Plant has over 1.2 million gallons of water storage.
