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The municipal utilities of Hibbing and Virginia talked about their proposed renewable <br /> biomass generation project. This project entails using the existing steam power plant in <br /> Hibbing and Virginia with popular trees as fuel to produce 35MW of electric generation. <br /> Over 600,000 ton/year of trees will be needed. Excel Energy with purchase of the output <br /> at approximately 10.2 0/kWH to satisfy their renewable fuel mandate. This project will <br /> be a great economic development boost for this part of our state. <br /> There are also more charges on the horizon for locating underground utilities. In rule <br /> making now, is the requirement for cities/utilities to locate private service lines (water <br /> service, sewer services, etc.) in public R/W and easements. It was initially proposed to <br /> locate these underground private lines on private property as well. Due to the depth of <br /> water and sewer lines, it is very difficult to locate metallic service lines with any accuracy <br /> and impossible to locate non-metallic (sewer lines) without pot holing. Failure to locate <br /> will result in the cities/utility paying for any repair to these underground utilities <br /> damaged by a 3`d party. MMUA will continue to fight this issue. In the long run, Elk <br /> River Municipal Utilities is going down the right path in using GPS' to locate non- <br /> metallic and metallic underground utilities. <br /> MMUA and LMC are combining efforts and offering the safety compliance groups to <br /> interested Minnesota cities and not just cities involved in MMUA. <br />