The (Almost) Daily Brief

Comments Close Nov. 19 on Utah Plan to Assume Rail NEPA Reviews

By Megan Dayton · 10/20/2026

FUNDING  Hastings is building three PFAS treatment plants against a settlement fund the state expects to exhaust. A Minnesota Pollution Control Agency spokesperson told MinnPost that $604 million of the $890 million settlement had been allocated as of June 2026, and that what remains could be used up by late 2027 or early 2028, an estimate the agency said could change. The money has gone to water infrastructure, park improvement, and stream restoration across the east metro, and the agency and the Department of Natural Resources decide which projects it funds. If it runs out before the remaining mitigation is built, 3M is required to cover the cost. The state sued 3M in 2010 and settled in 2018 for $850 million plus $40 million for short-term measures. Hastings sat outside that settlement until a 2024 agency study linked PFAS in one of its wells to 3M’s Cottage Grove site, and the city then received $14.5 million. Five of Hastings’ six municipal wells exceed federal drinking water limits for PFAS. The city is building a treatment plant able to filter them and plans two more, against a $70 million price tag for the three. The 2026 bonding bill carried $17.4 million to Hastings. State and federal funds, grants, and water rates cover the rest, and rates have risen three times since January 2025 with further increases expected over three years. Hastings filed its own suit against 3M in August 2026.

Source: MinnPost, Oct. 19

ENG  A federal exclusion order reaches third-party software built on a Chinese artificial intelligence model. The Department of Homeland Security published notice Oct. 20 at 91 FR 66346, docket DHS-2026-0628, of an order the Secretary of Homeland Security issued on a recommendation of the Federal Acquisition Security Council. The order excludes information technology products and services developed by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd, and its affiliated entities as defined in 48 CFR 2.101, from federal civilian agency procurements. It also orders removal from civilian agency information technology of all DeepSeek and DeepSeek-affiliate products, and of third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations.

Source: Federal Register, Oct. 20 (91 FR 66346)

POLICY  A preliminary injury finding on imported seamless steel pipe lands by Nov. 30. The U.S. International Trade Commission published notice Oct. 20 at 91 FR 66358 that it has instituted preliminary phase antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on seamless carbon and alloy steel standard, line, and pressure pipe from the country of Georgia and from India. The investigations carry numbers 701-TA-810 and 731-TA-1811-1812 and follow an Oct. 15 petition from Vallourec Star, LP, and Tenaris USA, both of Houston, and the United Steel, Paper and Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union. The petition alleges sales in the United States below fair value from both countries and subsidies from the government of India. The scope covers Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheadings 7304.19.10, 7304.19.50, 7304.31.60, 7304.39.00, 7304.51.50, 7304.59.60, and 7304.59.80. A staff conference runs Nov. 5 at 9:30am. Unless the Commerce Department extends the time for initiation, the commission reaches a preliminary determination by Nov. 30 and transmits its views to Commerce by Dec. 7.

Source: Federal Register, Oct. 20 (91 FR 66358)

BIZ  State power regulators have become a scheduling risk priced into data center debt. Investors lost confidence in CoreWeave this month, and the New York Times puts the company at $72 billion in liabilities to operate 51 data centers, with its bond yield past 15 percent and investors placing a more than 60 percent likelihood on a failure to meet obligations. CNBC reported Oct. 15 that CoreWeave has taken on over $51 billion in debt and obligations and that its credit default swap spreads reached distressed levels. CNN put debt and lease liabilities at $52 billion in the second quarter against $30 billion at the end of 2025. The spread investors demand on risky artificial intelligence debt has risen over 50 percent in six months on Barclays figures. Oracle borrowed $38 billion from a group of banks last year to build a pair of data centers with project developers, one in Texas and the other on 2,000 acres of farmland in Port Washington, Wisconsin. Oracle planned to repay the Texas borrowing out of profits from the Wisconsin complex, Project Lighthouse, which it expected to operate by 2028. State power regulators have since pushed back their time horizon for approving construction of a power grid the project depends on, and the data center researcher Aterio said Project Lighthouse’s four data centers now look less likely to start operating before 2029, a year ahead of when Oracle’s debt comes due. Some of that debt has traded around 90 cents on the dollar. Oracle faces the same problem in New Mexico, where developer Blue Owl has begun construction and Oracle is struggling to get state permits to provide enough power. Some $18 billion of debt tied to that project has sold at 80 cents on the dollar. A CoreWeave spokeswoman, Lia Davis, said the company disagreed with investor comparisons to WeWork, saying “the complexity of our financing reflects discipline, which is a point of pride for us.”

Sources: Maureen Farrell and Rob Copeland, The New York Times, Oct. 17; Michelle Fox, CNBC, Oct. 15; John Towfighi, CNN, Oct. 20

PROJECTS  Anoka County put a consultant on a rural stretch of Round Lake Boulevard three years ahead of reconstruction. The county board approved a $110,524.36 professional services contract with Bolton & Menk on Oct. 13 for a corridor and traffic study covering 1.5 miles of Round Lake Boulevard in Andover, between 161st and 172nd avenues. The county requested proposals from two qualified engineering firms, and Andover city staff took part in the selection. County highway engineer and chief transportation officer Joe MacPherson described the segment as a rural two-lane road with no shoulders or turn lanes, and said there are no traffic controls between those two avenues on a 55 mile per hour limit. He cited housing growth and several serious crashes. Reconstruction plans keep the two-lane configuration and add shoulders with dedicated right- and left-turn lanes. The study is expected to take up to a year and carries three public open houses. Construction is scheduled for 2029, and MacPherson said there is “no federal funding at this point.” Bolton & Menk project manager Bryan T. Nemeth said one purpose is to build agreement among county staff, Andover officials, road users, and adjacent property owners.

Source: ABC Newspapers, Oct. 19

BIZ  Every headline measure in the September housing report came in below last September. The Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development put privately owned housing starts at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,221,000 in September, 5.2 percent (plus or minus 11.8 percent) below the revised August estimate of 1,288,000 and 7.4 percent (plus or minus 11.5 percent) below the September 2025 rate of 1,319,000. Single-family starts ran at 859,000, 4.6 percent (plus or minus 10.0 percent) below the revised August figure of 900,000, and buildings with five units or more ran at 349,000. Building permits came in at 1,400,000, 0.2 percent under the revised August rate of 1,403,000 and 3.0 percent under September 2025, with single-family authorizations at 845,000 and five-unit-or-more authorizations at 503,000; the release publishes no sampling interval for permits. Completions ran at 1,192,000, 2.2 percent (plus or minus 10.8 percent) above the revised August estimate and 14.0 percent (plus or minus 11.1 percent) below September 2025. The October report releases Nov. 18.

Source: Census Bureau and HUD, Oct. 20 (CB26-162)

ENG  A county-by-county read of Minnesota pavement and bridges puts the county system in the weaker position. The Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program at the University of Minnesota assessed condition, safety, and performance on the National Highway System and the County State-Aid Highway system from 2018 to 2024, using state-collected data. The National Highway System holds 10 percent of statewide lane miles and carries a majority of traffic; the County State-Aid Highway system runs over twice its length and carries far less. Above 80 percent of National Highway System roads and above 60 percent of County State-Aid Highway roads sit in good condition, and the county system carries over twice the poor-condition roads of the National Highway System. Northwest Minnesota counties have the most County State-Aid Highway roads in good condition and the metro the fewest. Across 13,500 bridges the network is generally well maintained, but conditions have been slowly declining since 2019 as the count in fair condition rises, the share in good condition falls where population grows, and northwest counties carry a higher rate of bridges in poor condition. Minnesota counties average 929 crashes per 100,000 people. Between 2019 and 2023 property damage crashes fell 22 percent and fatal and injury crashes fell 13 percent, while severity has risen slightly since 2020. Southwest counties run higher rates across all three crash categories and northwest counties lower. Camila Fonseca-Sarmiento of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs led the work.

Source: University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies, Oct. 6

BIZ  Mortgage rates above 7 percent tipped the Twin Cities toward buyers in September. New listings rose 3 percent during the month, leaving 12,400 listings at the end of it, 1,252 more than a year earlier and an 11 percent increase. Closings were off 3 percent. The median price of all sales held at $395,000, up over 1 percent from last year. Houses took longer to move. Homes sold in 48 days on average, four days longer than last year. At the current sale pace the market holds 3.2 months of supply, the highest level for any September in several years and well below the five-to-six-month supply that once defined a balanced market. For the week ending Oct. 12, house showings in the 16-county metro ran 16.9 percent below a year earlier on Minneapolis Area Realtors data. Showings fell at every price point, with the smallest declines above $1 million and the steepest in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, which carried a quarter of all showings. Freddie Mac put the 30-year average at 7.4 percent for the week ending Oct. 15, over a full point above a year earlier, and Mortgage News Daily had it at 7.33 percent for the average lender on Oct. 15. Andrew Babula, who directs the real estate program at the University of Saint Thomas, said a $400,000 loan moving from a 6 percent rate to 7 percent adds $250 to a monthly payment. Redfin called the Twin Cities a solid buyers’ market alongside 40 other large metros and put the national seller-to-buyer gap at 63 percent. Wendy Uzelac, a Grand Rapids broker and president of Minnesota Realtors, said in a statement that “buyers who are ready to move have more choices than they’ve had in years.”

Sources: Jim Buchta, Minnesota Star Tribune, Oct. 16; Minneapolis Area Realtors, September housing market update, Oct. 16

POLICY  The U.S. Supreme Court heard argument on whether filing a permit application triggers environmental review. Justices argued Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guåhan, No. 25-579, on Oct. 7. Two questions are before the court. The first is whether the Air Force’s application to renew a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act permit is final agency action reviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act. The second is whether the government must satisfy the National Environmental Policy Act before submitting that renewal application. The Air Force applied in 2021 to renew the permit that lets it detonate munitions at Tarague Beach in Guam. The Guam Environmental Protection Agency issued a preliminary decision that neither granted nor denied it. Prutehi Guåhan sued in January 2022. A federal judge in Guam dismissed the case as premature and held that the hazardous waste statute is the functional equivalent of environmental review. The Ninth Circuit reversed on Feb. 13, 2025. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Associated General Contractors of America filed an amicus brief supporting the Air Force, arguing the appellate reading would “saddle the federal permitting process with premature litigation.” A decision is pending.

Sources: Supreme Court docket 25-579; SCOTUSblog argument analysis, Oct. 7; Engineering News-Record, Oct. 15

BIZ  Industry gross margins have reached their highest level since 2021. Morrissey Goodale drew 26 industry readings from two presentations at its M&A and Capitalization Symposium in Houston, where 180 industry chief executives, investors, and corporate development executives attended. Median gross margin sits at 69.6 percent, the highest since 2021, with high performers at 72.7 percent. Median operating margin has slipped to 18.8 percent against 26.8 percent for high performers. The median revenue factor has climbed to 1.95 times net revenue per dollar of total labor cost, a six-year high the firm attributes to scarce technical talent. Revenue per employee moved in two directions. The median fell 1.6 percent to $188,378 while high performers gained 0.9 percent to $216,377. The average collection period rose to 80 days. Half of respondents named talent acquisition and development their top challenge. Attendees named transportation (18 percent), water (18 percent), and power and energy (16 percent) as their biggest 2026 growth sources, and digital delivery and technology solutions (18 percent) and program management and advisory services (16 percent) as the most-requested new client services. Active digital and artificial intelligence deployment reached 92 percent of attendees, up from 58 percent a year earlier, but the most-cited use is internal documentation and efficiency at 35 percent and only 11 percent report using it in design, quality assurance and quality control, or project delivery. On the deal side, 356 transactions closed through the end of August, the most at that point in any year the firm has tracked since 2005. Private-equity-backed buyers closed 56 percent of deals through August against 12 percent in 2016, the first year sponsors have taken the majority of the market. Employee-owned firms now make up 57 percent of the ENR Top 100, down from 75 percent in 2016, and 40 percent of buyers, down from 79 percent a decade ago.

Source: Morrissey Goodale, Word on the Street Issue 308, Oct. 19

WORKFORCE  Minnesota State will redirect college money to two universities running low on cash. The system’s board of trustees approved a plan on Oct. 14 to reallocate up to $25 million each year for the next four years to financially challenged institutions, with $15 million per year going to Saint Cloud State University and Bemidji State University. Most of the money comes from two-year schools. System officials call the shift temporary and tie it to a realignment of the whole system. They put the structural deficit at $30 million and project $100 million in two years without action. Chancellor Scott Olson has said the system needs to “right size” itself, which could mean closing institutions or campuses. Minnesota State leaders have said they plan to close the community and technical college campus in Detroit Lakes as soon as the summer of 2028. Officials at two-year colleges raised concern about the financial burden.

Source: MPR News, Oct. 15

ENG  A member-firm project built on real-time monitoring has until Nov. 11 to reach ACEC’s magazine. Engineering Inc. is assembling a multi-project feature on three or four member firms instrumenting critical infrastructure, and on what the resulting data does for asset life and owner operations. Projects under construction and recently completed ones both qualify. Submissions close Wednesday, Nov. 11.

Source: ACEC, Oct. 16

BIZ  HDR named Erin Hunt president and chief operating officer. Hunt takes the role in January 2027 from Neil Graff, who retires at the end of this year after 35 years with the firm and took the post in 2024. She will run daily global operations at what HDR calls the largest 100 percent employee-owned firm in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. Hunt joined HDR after an environmental engineering degree at the University of Florida and moved from project manager to operations manager for Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. She most recently led the company’s water practice and its 2,300 professionals, and stays on the board.

Source: ACEC, Oct. 16

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