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2.0 Executive Summary <br />2.1 Location <br />The cities of Centerville, Circle Pines, Columbus, Hugo, Lexington and Lino Lakes are located <br />approximately 20 miles northeast of Saint Paul in Anoka and Washington counties. The region is <br />situated amongst many lakes and includes a substantial amount of undeveloped land. The geographic <br />location of the six cities is depicted in Figure Al. Figure A2 depicts current land use and Figure A3 <br />depicts future land use. These figures are located in the Appendix A of this report. <br />2.2 Existing Water Systems <br />Municipal water supply systems provide both potable drinking water and fire protection. The systems <br />consist of supply, treatment, storage, and distribution piping to deliver water to customers. Each of the <br />six cities currently owns and operates Its own potable water system, and all six cities use groundwater <br />for their water supply. However, the number and size of distribution watermain, number of groundwater <br />supply wells, water quality, water treatment, and number of storage tanks varies between cities. There <br />are several existing small diameter interconnections between some of the cities that allow water to flow <br />between the separate systems for emergency uses. <br />The age of the water system components also vary since the systems are at varying stages of <br />development. There are two general groups in this regard, those that are can be classified as a <br />developed city with little to no expected additional growth and those that can be classified as a growing <br />city which have large undeveloped parcels and anticipate future growth. <br />• Those classified as a developed city include: Lexington, Circle Pines and Centerville. These <br />communities have more mature water systems which supply most or all of the developable area <br />in their respective cities. <br />• Those classified as a growing city Include: Hugo, Lino Lakes and Columbus. They are projecting <br />growth and new infrastructure to accommodate future populations. <br />A depiction of the existing water systems is provided in Figure A4 in Appendix A. <br />A key potential benefit of joining the systems together is that each of these groups has assets that can <br />benefit the other. Generally, the fully developed cities' water systems have supply and storage that, <br />when combined with the growing cities, can be used to meet future development needs. Conversely, <br />the growing communities are able to generate capital via developers' fees and assessments. This <br />creates a condition where a potential buyer with capital (growing city) can join up with a potential seller <br />who has assets (developed city) needed by the buyer. The creation of a Joint Utility would connect the <br />growing communities with the fully developed communities via a purchase of the needed assets. They <br />would then enter Into a long term relationship beneficial to both groups. <br />2.3 Summary of Joint System Analysis <br />At a high level, the key advantages of a Joint Water Utility under Option 1--,a jointly constructed, owned <br />and operated supply, storage and treatment system, or Option 2--e jointly constructed, owned and <br />operated supply, storage, treatment and disiaibWon system are: <br />For the growing cities: <br />* Less expensive supply <br />e Less expensive storage <br />86 <br />Joint water Wity FeasiMilty study 7 <br />