Photo Tour: Scenes from St. Peter Broadway Water Treatment Facility

Nicollet SWCD’s Clean Water Fund-backed nitrate-reduction work with landowners in the city’s Drinking Water Supply Management Area is estimated to reduce sediment by 100 tons, nitrogen by 2,500 pounds, phosphorus by 200 pounds a year.

From left: St. Peter Water Foreman Chris Voeltz prepared to lead a tour of the Broadway Water Treatment Facility on May 14, 2025, with St. Peter Water Resources Superintendent Curtis Thompson, Nicollet SWCD technician Blake Honetschlager and Nicollet SWCD Manager Kevin Ostermann. Photo Credits: Ann Wessel, BWSR

Thirty-three percent of sales tax revenue from the Legacy Amendment, which Minnesota voters passed in 2008, is allocated to the Clean Water Fund. Clean Water Funds may only be spent to protect, enhance or restore water quality in lakes, rivers and streams, and to protect groundwater.

The city had approached the Nicollet Soil & Water Conservation District about pursuing funds, and provided a match to the Clean Water Fund grant the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources awarded the SWCD in 2021. The resulting work with landowners tapped $238,480 in grant dollars, and focused on reducing nitrates at the source. That, in turn, would reduce the city’s treatment costs.

Landowners working with SWCD staff installed 11 water and sediment control basins and enrolled just over 890 acres into three-year nutrient management plans. St. Peter Water Foreman Chris Voeltz led a tour of the facility on May 14, 2025. Following are scenes from that tour.

Four wells at St. Peter’s Broadway Water Treatment Facility site supply groundwater from three aquifers. Pictured are three of the wells, which draw from the Jordan, Tunnel City Wonewoc and Mount Simon aquifers. Well №11, in the foreground, draws from the Jordan Aquifer and is the shallowest at 233 feet.

The water tower at the Broadway Avenue site has a capacity of 500,000 gallons. On average, St. Peter’s two water treatment facilities together pump about 900,000 gallons per day in the winter and 1.8 million gallons per day in the summer.

St. Peter public works staff at the Broadway Water Treatment Facility monitor in-house operations in the lab.

The light green pipes transport blended well water before it’s filtered. The blue pipes contain filtered water from which iron and manganese has been removed. The brown pipe carries the backwash water, which was used to clean the water filters, away to the reclaim tank.

Water from the four wells at the Broadway Water Treatment Facility site is pumped into the facility, where it is blended before undergoing treatment.

Once the water has been aerated it flows into a 96,000-gallon detention tank. Here, water is filtered through 15-inch layers of anthracite coal, green sand and support gravel to remove iron and manganese. Those minerals were oxidized to form rust particles, which stick to the filtering media. When iron oxidizes, it makes the water appear greenish. The filtered water flows to a 140,000-gallon clearwell.

The clearwell is located under the pump room floor. Here, four pumps send treated water out to the distribution system; three send water back to the reverse osmosis filtering process.

The reverse osmosis system removes dissolved solids including nitrates, salts and other minerals. It also softens the water. Increasing the water pressure to 150 pounds per square inch forces water through two reverse osmosis units, where membranes block dissolved solids. The dissolved solids in the “waste stream” are then sent through a third reverse osmosis unit, a step that increases the ratio of usable water to wastewater from 70/30 to 80/20.

The city of St. Peter’s municipal drinking water supply comes from two plants that pump groundwater from the Jordan, Tunnel City-Wonewoc and Mount Simon aquifers. Treated drinking water that leaves the Broadway Water Treatment Facility is a blend of 85% reverse osmosis filtered water and 15% filtered water. The blend makes the water taste better.

The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources’ mission is to work with partners to improve and protect Minnesota’s land and water resources.
www.bwsr.state.mn.us