# Empire Wastewater Treatment Plant *Metropolitan Council wastewater treatment plant serving southern Dakota County, Minnesota.* The **Empire Wastewater Treatment Plant** is a regional wastewater facility of the Metropolitan Council that serves communities in southern Dakota County, [[Minnesota]]. The only entry in this record that names the plant is item AI-Dakota-070 of the project's Dakota County at-issue record. That entry states that the plant was built in 1979, has since been doubled, and carries 24 million gallons a day.[^1] The entry puts two facts side by side: Dakota County withdrew from the regional transit board, and its southern communities still depend on the regional sewer. In the entry's words, the county "left the transit board; it did not leave the sewer."[^1] The record does not give the date or terms of the county's transit withdrawal. It also does not give any service agreement, rate, or cost for the plant. ## Who The entry calls the plant "The Met Council's" and describes its owner as an appointed regional body.[^1] The pack does not separately name the plant's operator, its staff, or the officials who approved its construction or expansion. ## What The entry gives the plant's flow as 24 million gallons a day.[^1] The record does not say whether that figure is design capacity or average daily flow, and it does not say what date the figure applies to. ## When According to the entry, the plant was built in 1979 and has since been doubled.[^1] The record does not give the year of the expansion. ## Where The entry lists the communities the plant serves as [[Apple Valley]], [[Elko New Market]], [[Empire Township]], [[Farmington]], [[Rosemount]] and part of [[Lakeville]].[^1] The pack does not state the plant's site or address. ## In the at-issue record The entry's stated point is that the region's leverage over local land use is infrastructural, not advisory. It states that growth in southern Dakota County runs through a pipe owned by an appointed regional body.[^1] The entry names a March 2025 White House presidential action on eliminating information silos as its anchor.[^2] The pack does not say which provision of that action bears on the plant or on the Metropolitan Council. The record supports the ownership, construction year, flow and service area as the entry states them. It does not establish how sewer-capacity decisions are made, who makes them, or how they bear on local zoning.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: Minnesota wiki project, *Dakota Claims Exposure Matrix* (2026-09-02), at-issue item AI-Dakota-070 — the plant's 1979 construction, its later doubling, the 24 million gallons a day figure, the communities it serves, its Metropolitan Council ownership, and the transit-board statement, as stated in the entry. The entry lists its underlying source only as self-published on the domain metrocouncil.org, and no URL from that domain is among the pack's citable sources. [^2]: The White House, *Presidential action on eliminating information silos* (March 2025) — the document the at-issue entry names as its anchor. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/stopping-waste-fraud-and-abuse-by-eliminating-information-silos/