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Chairman’s Message

Les Anderson, MRWA Chairman

2021 Rural Water Rally

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Legislatively, Rural Water’s most important annual event occurs in Washington during the second week
of February. MRWA staff, along with Board and rural water system members, usually attend the annual
National Rural Water Association Water Rally in-person in Washington DC. This is our opportunity to meet
in-person with all ten federal legislators and/or their aides to stress the importance of allocating funds
to assist Minnesota’s small water and wastewater systems. This year, due to the pandemic and events
occurring on Capitol Hill, that Rural Water Rally went virtual to communicate issues facing rural Minnesota.

NRWA 2021 virtual Washington DC Rally began with an opening session on February 9th. The Rally starts
our year-long grassroots campaign to persuade Congress to fund all Rural Water priorities. When possible,
MRWA held virtual meetings in lieu of in-person and communicated our rural water priorities to them.
NRWA held the Great American Taste Test, with the city of Evansville representing Minnesota as they
won the 2020 Best Tasting Water in Minnesota contest at our 36th Annual Water & Wastewater Technical
Conference on March 4, 2020.

Minnesota Rural Water Association’s work is very important to our
state and especially rural Minnesota. MRWA keeps a close eye on
federal legislation in Washington DC and state legislation at our
Capitol, ensuring that our programs continue to exist and
provide the much needed services. Federal and/or state
programs fund the majority of work at MRWA.

Small and rural communities have the very important
public responsibility of complying with all applicable
federal and Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water
Act regulations for supplying the public with safe
drinking water and wastewater every day. Small and
rural communities often have difficulty complying with
complicated federal mandates and providing safe and
affordable drinking water and wastewater due to limited
economies of scale and lack of technical expertise. This
difficulty is eased due to ongoing and continuing support
offered through Minnesota Rural Water Association training
programs and hands-on technical assistance.

Many of you wrote MRWA with letters of support and we’d like to thank you for that! It is really gratifying
to see the appreciation of MRWA’s services and the ways in which we’ve been able to assist you!

Happy

RETIREMENT!

Congratulations and best wishes to Tim Hagemeier who is retiring from
Minnesota Rural Water Association on April 30th after 31 years of service!
Tim was MRWA’s wastewater technical advisor since 1990 and then in 2019
he went on to work on MRWA’s Pond Optimization program. Tim is a true
expert in his field doing everything from wastewater technical advice and
training, testifying at the MN Legislature, sitting on various advisory boards,
and being a great listener. Tim and his wife Barb also make a great duo
at our technical conference announcing our raffle and prizes. He will be
missed! Enjoy your retirement Tim!

4 MRWA TODAY S SPRING 2021