About Minneapolis Water

In 1867, the Minneapolis City Council authorized the establishment of the Minneapolis Water Works. The division initially only supplied the Fire Department with water. In 1872, the City’s first drinking water pump station was built on the Mississippi River above St. Anthony Falls, and the division was expanded to include the distribution of water to residents. Minneapolis was the first Minnesota city with a public drinking water system.

The Tap Water We Produce

The Mississippi River is our sole water source.

Approximately 21 billion gallons of water are pumped from the Mississippi River by WTDS each year.

To remove impurities and prepare the river water for drinking, WTDS uses multiple treatment processes, including softening, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection. Two type of filtration are used: granular media filtration and membrane ultrafiltration

Our softening plant removes about 65,000 lbs of hardness from the river water each day.

Byproducts from the softening process are used by Minnesota and Wisconsin farmers to neutralize soil.

Fluoride was introduced to the treatment process in 1957 to help prevent tooth decay.

Approximately 500 chemical, physical, and bacteriological tests are performed each day. For more information about water quality, see our Consumer Confidence Report and our Monthly or Yearly Plant Effluent Water Analysis.

WTDS produces an average of 57 million gallons of drinking water each day – at that rate, we could fill Lake of the Isles in about four days.

Our Customers

Nearly a half million Minneapolis residents use about 40 percent of the water we produce each day.

WTDS also supplies water to the residents of Golden Valley, Crystal, New Hope, Columbia Heights, Hilltop, New Brighton, and Edina’s Morningside neighborhood. We supplement Bloomington’s water supply (which uses a mix of our water and well water). Our suburban customers use about 22 percent of our total daily production.

Around 38 percent of our water is used for institutional, commercial and industrial purposes. The University of Minnesota Twin Cities, the Metropolitan Airport Commission, and the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center are our largest customers, and account for 5 percent of the total water sold by WTDS.

Our Distributi on System

The WTDS distribution system consists of nine pump stations, eight finished water reservoirs (with a storage capacity of 162 million gallons), over 15,000 isolation valves, and a network of more than 1,000 miles of water mains. The water mains in Minneapolis could stretch from here to Denver! We take pride in our construction and maintenance practices, which keep our water infrastructure in high working order. Our distribution team routinely performs leak inspections, makes repairs, and cleans and lines our water mains.

The Water Fund

The City’s water fund is the major source of revenue for WTDS. This money is generated solely from our water sales to residential, non-residential, and suburban customers, and can only be used to fund projects related to tap water. This means that water fund revenue cannot be used to pave streets, pay police officers, or used for any other City service.

Have a Question or Need More Information?

WTDS provides general treatment facts and figures upon request and distributes this information to schools, universities, and others as part of their presentations to many organizations. This information can be obtained by calling our Water Quality Information Line: 612-661-4999.

For additional information about tap water in general, please follow this link to the American Water Works Association website – DrinkTap.org

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