Saint Paul Regional Water Services’ mission is to provide reliable, quality water and services at a reasonable cost.
Saint Paul Regional Water Services (SPRWS) maintains 1,200 miles of water main, 10,000 water hydrants and multiple valves and other operation related assets in the field. In addition, we maintain water tanks and towers, reservoirs, and standpipes in our supply system. We maintain the areas where those assets are located as well as the properties around our lakes and Mississippi River intake station. The McCarrons campus houses the administration building, water treatment plant, garage, warehouse, dewatering building, chemical buildings, and pipe yard. Only the administration building is accessible to the public for everyday needs such as bill payments, public meetings, and other public-facing activities.
Service to the Community
Saint Paul Regional Water Services provides potable drinking water to more than 450,000 residents of Saint Paul and the surrounding east metro communities it serves, including Maplewood, West Saint Paul, Mendota, Mendota Heights, Lauderdale, Falcon Heights, Lilydale, and wholesale water sales to Roseville, Little Canada and Arden Hills.
Services Offered
Plan Assessment Process
1
Facilities
| FACILITY | ACCESS ISSUE | SOLUTION | EST. COST | DATE |
| SPRWS Admin. Building | The public bathroom paper towels dispensers are too high for wheelchair accessibility | Lower paper towel dispensers to 48 inches from the floor | TBD | By Q2 of 2025. |
| Treatment plant | Only ramp access is via the employee break room | Add a ramp to the main entrance | TBD | TBD |
2
Services
| Service | Who is Served | Accommodations / Considerations | Comments / Ideas for Improvement |
| Lead Free SPRWS | Customers with lead service lines who are eligible for lead service line replacement | Language translations of important materials. Staff are bilingual in Spanish and Hmong. | Look for resources for when dealing with customers with special needs who might be reluctant to allow home access to the water meter when the hookup to the house of the new service line needs to occur. |
| Water Quality Complaints | Customers who call in or email with a water quality complaint. | If warranted, a water quality specialist will be assigned to meet with the customer in the home or business and test the water on the premises. | Look for resources for when dealing with customers with special needs who might be reluctant to allow home access to test for water quality. |
| Plumbing permits | Homeowners with small projects; contractors | The ability to talk to staff should the customer have dyslexia or other reading impairment/disability. | Ensure readability by providing data in another format that is readable by online readers or PDF readers. |
| Hydrant permits | Contractors, event planners | The ability to talk to staff should the customer have dyslexia or other reading impairment/disability. | Ensure readability by providing data in another format that is readable by online readers or PDF readers. |
| Backflow preventer permits and testing | Contractors; building managers | The ability to talk to staff should the customer have dyslexia or other reading impairment/disability. | Ensure readability by providing data in another format that is readable by online readers or PDF readers. |
| Bill pay | customers | Admin building is accessible. Language line and other LEP services are available in person, over the phone. | Ensure readability by providing data in another format that is readable by online readers or PDF readers. |
| High bill/high water use | Customers | Usually over the phone or via mail notification. | Not readable by the blind or sight impaired. |
| Lien Against Property | Real estate agents | Mostly done via fax or email. Can do over the phone as well for customers with dyslexia or other reading impairment/disability or blind or sign impaired. | Faxes are not readable by the blind or sight impaired, but the requests that come in via fax are responded to via fax. |
| Move in Move out | Homeowners and tenants moving in or out of a property | Phone, email | |
Questions About an Account | Customers | In person at SPRWS, phone, email, information is available about the bill on the bill pay website, but it is not in interactive format online (i.e. doesn’t have a chat function online) | |
| Lead In-Home Test Bottles | Customers | In person at SPRWS. Can call for more information, and pick up the bottle at SPRWS | We do deliver the bottles in certain situations (i.e. the homeowner doesn’t drive). Make the bottles available at local recreation locations or libraries for pick up at additional locations to allow for better geographic accessibility. |
| Temporary Water Main | Customers/public | Provide ramps that go over the temp mains or cut outs in driveways and backfilled to allow access. Need to be able to get into the customer’s home to access the water meter to complete the hook up and back feed it into the house. | Look for resources for when dealing with customers with special needs who might be reluctant to allow home access to the water meter. |
| Meter access | Customers, possibly businesses | Make appointments via the phone, notice letters are sent out via mail. The house may also receive a placard if the home is in threat of water shut off due to an inaccessible water meter. | Look for resources for when dealing with customers with special needs who might be reluctant to allow home access to the water meter. |
| Lead Service Line Replacement | Customers who qualify and are notified that year who sign up for the service | Provide notification via mail with information in additional languages, including phone calls and in person encounters with bilingual staff fluent in Hmong and Spanish. | Look for resources for when dealing with customers with special needs who might be reluctant to allow home access to the water meter area where the service line has to be connected. |
| Construction | Customers affected by planned construction | Provide project information via mail and the website. | Write in a plain language format to get the readability index down to an 8th grade reading level. Right now, most letters and website information are at an 11th grade or higher reading level. |
| Main breaks | Unplanned emergencies that affect customers and the public | Cones and other traffic and sidewalk barriers set up to keep the public out of the affected areas | |
| Monthly Mineral Analysis | Customers and businesses affected by water quality | Provided via Gov.Delivery notification in PDF attachment and online in a PDF. | Ensure readability by providing data in another format that is readable by online readers or PDF readers. The table is not reader friendly and is complicated. |
| Board of Water Commissioners Meetings | Customers and the public, the media | Notice of the meeting and the agenda is provided via Gov.Delivery emails and via the city’s meeting website, Legistar. Notice is posted on the water utility’s website and the agenda is on the city’s site, Legistar. The PDF of the agenda is readable by a PDF reader. |
3
Programs
| Program | Who is Served | Accommodations / Considerations | Comments / Ideas for Improvement |
| Lead Free SPRWS | Customers with lead service lines who are eligible for lead service line replacement | The ability to talk to staff about the program should the customer have dyslexia or other reading impairment/disability. Customers can access staff via email or the phone, or often have in person visits. There is a significant amount of information available online as well. | Ensure readability by providing data in another format that is readable by online readers or PDF readers. There are other options for communications, such as phone calls and in person meetings, these obstacles can be overcome using those methods. |
4
Information
| Information Avenue | What Information is Conveyed Here? | How Is It Accessible? | Potential Barriers Between the Public and This Information? |
| Website | |||
| Direct mailings | Water bill | Delivered directly to the home or business. | Ensure readability by providing data in another format that is readable by online readers or PDF readers. Graphics could be added to better illustrate the bill for those with reading comprehension disabilities. |
| Direct mailings | High water use/ unusual water use (often low) | Ensure readability by providing data in another format that is readable by online readers or PDF readers. | |
| Direct mailings | Overdue bill | Ensure readability by providing data in another format that is readable by online readers or PDF readers. | |
| Direct Mailing | Water meter access notice | Delivered directly to a home or business. | Ensure readability by providing data in another format that is readable by online readers or PDF readers. |
| Direct Mailing/ Email | Alternate meter request | Delivered directly to a home or business. | Ensure readability by providing data in another format that is readable by online readers or PDF readers. |
| Direct Mailing | Backflow preventer permit or inspection notice | Delivered directly to a home or business. | Ensure readability by providing data in another format that is readable by online readers or PDF readers. |
| Direct mailing | Any variety of topics from sales tax refunds to bankruptcies, and tax certifications, to refund notices and tax-exempt certifications | Delivered directly to a home or business. | Ensure readability by providing data in another format that is readable by online readers or PDF readers. |
| Direct mailing | Construction work | Not accessible to the visually impaired. Might be problematic for those with dyslexia. Often the information is not written for an 8th grade audience and would benefit from plain language text. | |
| Signage | Construction work | Large print readable from a distance. | Not accessible to the visually impaired. Might be problematic for those with dyslexia. |
| Website | Permits | PDF and online text. | PDFs are often in tables and not accessible by PDF readers for the visually impaired. Often the information is not written for an 8th grade audience and would benefit from plain language text. |
| Website | Construction information | Online text and PDF maps. | PDFs are often in tables and not accessible by PDF readers for the visually impaired. Often the information is not written for an 8th grade audience and would benefit from plain language text. |
| Website | Lead Free SPRWS | There is information listed via text and PDF. There are interactive maps for looking up service line materials. There is contact information listed for phone and email correspondence. Videos of lead service line replacements and what a service line replacement is and an overview of the Lead Free SPRWS program. Videos are accessible via closed captioning for the hearing impaired. | PDFs are often not accessible by PDF readers for the visually impaired. Often the information is not written for an 8th grade audience and would benefit from plain language text. |
| Website | Board of Water Commissioners | There is information listed via text. There is contact information listed for phone and email correspondence. | Accessible via online readers. |
| Website | Tower Open House | Online text and videos Accessible via online readers. Closed captioned videos for the hearing impaired. | |
| Website | General information on a variety of topics ranging from water supply and treatment processes to distribution methods | Online text and videos. Accessible via online readers. Closed captioned videos for the hearing impaired. | |
| Website | Water quality report. Announcement made of availability in mailed newsletter with a direct link to the water quality PDF online. | Online PDF. | Contains tables which are not easily read by an online reader. Mandated language by the EPA and MDH which is not always plain text or 8th grade reading level. Is not accessible by the sight impaired or possibly those with dyslexia or other reading disabilities. |
| Website and Gov.Delivery emails | Monthly Mineral Analysis | Online PDF | Not accessible via online PDF readers due to the tables in the PDF. |
| Emails | Responses to email inquiries. Sometimes contain PDF attachments. | Accessible via online readers. | Some PDFs are not completely readable via online readers. |
| Gov.Delivery emails | Direct emails to those who have signed up for various notifications. | Combination of online text and possibly PDFs. Accessible via online readers. | Some PDFs are not completely accessible via online readers. |
| Fax | Responses to fax are replied to via fax | Direct communication to the requestor. | Not accessible for the visually impaired. |
5
Policy
| Name of Policy | What Information Is Conveyed Here? | How Is It Accessible? |
| ADA Transition Plan | How we provide information and services to the public | It’s an internal plan |
| ADA checklist SPRWS | Checklist of ADA accessibility | Internal checklist by the senior safety officer. |
Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG), aka Accessibility Guidelines for Pedestrian Facilities in the Public Right-of-Way, 29 U.S. Code 792 and the Minnesota Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. The Minnesota Department of Transportation is the overarching source of ADA requirements for “City standards” within the public right of way. MnDOT is in the process of incorporating recently approved PROWAG guidance into their standards. | Guidelines for making public right of ways accessible. | MnDOT: https://standardplates.dot.state.mn.us/ City of Saint Paul: https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/public-works/standard-plates |
