People in the City of Mound have expressed concerns for years about unsafe levels of a chemical called manganese in their drinking water.
This follows 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reporting on Tuesday about a similar issue in Northfield.
Some level of manganese is healthy, but exposure to elevated levels can cause neurological issues, especially for infants and older adults, according to an advisory from the City of Mound.
These two cities are far from alone. The Minnesota Department of Health said it could not immediately provide an estimate of how many communities have elevated manganese levels on Wednesday, but in 2023, the tally was 67.
Mound City Manager Jesse Dickson said, like many other cities, officials have plans to fix the problem; it’s a matter of finding the funds to make it happen.
Mound resident Bob Shidla showed us the water filtration he and his wife have been using for a few years.
“We take our tap water and transfer it to this, and this is all the water we drink and cook with,” he said.
City officials first alerted residents to high levels of manganese in the water in a letter in 2021.
“It was sort of a surprise to us,” Shidla said.
Dickson said officials didn’t know about the manganese either, until the Minnesota Department of Health started mandating cities test for it five years ago.
“It’s concerning,” Dickson said.
I can assure you, had we known, you know, that it was something that needed to be taken care of, we would’ve planned for it.”
In 2023, the city asked state lawmakers for about $30 million to fix the problem by building a water treatment facility near Sorbo Park, Dickson said. In the end, they got a third of that money.
Now in 2025, Dickson said the construction cost has soared to about $40 million, and they’re back at the Capitol, again asking for $30 million to make up the difference.
“There’s no real other alternative. You know, we can’t create a new source of water,” he said.
Mound City officials penned a letter to Governor Tim Walz in January, requesting “…immediate assistance…” saying funding the project with city money alone “…simply isn’t feasible.”
Asked what’s next if lawmakers do not approve the funding, Dickson said, “Then we need to explore how to pay for it with user fees or other alternative funding streams that the city has access to. But it’s something we’re all dealing with. I mean, all of our neighbors.”
If lawmakers approve the funding, Dickson said they could break ground on the treatment facility as soon as the fall.