Huge new 48-inch waterline connectors are stacked at the Saginaw-Midland Water System headquarters at 4678 Three Mile Road, next to the Monitor Township hall. Bay County Merger With Saginaw-Midland Water System Would Make Good Sense
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Bay County townships and the City of Essexville reportedly are near action on a separate water system because of lack of progress on negotiations with the City of Bay City.
"The city is not listening and so they're going to move," said an anonymous source close to Bay County Department of Public Works. "They might build their own unit even though costs are high." The Bay County Road Commission is the governing board for the DPW.
The dispute centers around city charges for water to out-city customers, the source said. "There are problems with the 'true-up' at the end of the year," the source said, referring to the process of settling on the amount of water that had been used."
City water rates have increased by 28 percent over the past 10 years, comparable to inflation. The average residential customer uses seven units, or about 5,200 gallons a month. According to the city water department, average monthly costs are $17 in Bay City, $15 in Midland and $11 in Saginaw.
The Bay County Road Commission at one time was negotiating with the Saginaw-Midland Municipal Water Supply System for a merger. (See MyBayCity.com July 10, 2005 "New Waterline to Lake Huron at AuGres, Saginaw-Midland Merger Discussed.") However, no action resulted and road commission sources said the issue has not surfaced recently.
Meanwhile, Bay City will be the site Tuesday of a statewide "Michigan Harmful Algal Bloom" workshop sponsored by the Michigan Land Use Institute to consider the effects of taste and odor problems in water.
It might be time to take a new look at a possible merger, either through the City of Bay City, the Bay County Road Commission or a new coalition of townships and Essexville, especially since the Saginaw-Midland system has launched a major improvement project of the line located in Bay County.
Midland crews moved in this weekend to begin preparations for installation of the new underground connections on the 48-inch line that comes from Whitestone Point. This line runs on North Union to Midland and another 36-inch line runs through Frankenlust Township to Saginaw.
Frankenlust Township is the only area in Bay County that gets water from Saginaw-Midland.
Bay City's water treatment facility was built in 1979 at a cost of about $22 million. The city website states: "The plant features a unique treatment process called ozonation, which destroys most bacteria, viruses, algae and organic compounds which could have long-term health effects and which could cause objectionable tastes and odors in the water."
The city is reconstructing the North Lagoon on Euclid Avenue near the bay, a reservoir installed by the Dow Chemical Co. in the 1930s and used to keep the water supply safe in emergencies related to toxic dumping in Midland.
The lagoon reclamation is being funded in part by a $6 million state loan through the Drinking Water Revolving Fund.
The algal bloom conference will convene at 9:30 a.m. with welcome by Sonia Joseph of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Center for Excellence for Great Lakes Human Health.
The workshop is for public health officials, beach managers, wastewater operators, native American tribes, agriculturalists and residents interested in harmful algal blooms in order to determine the extent of the HAB issue and report to the public.
Tuesday's workshop in Bay City is part of the Michigan Land Use Institute's "Smart Growth" initiative, a bipartisan movement to establish a new economic development strategy around the principles of halting sprawl, securing natural resources, conserving farmland and other ideas.
Traverse City, Grand Rapids and Detroit are already involved in cooperative projects with neighboring areas to achieve growth.
The Saginaw-Midland system draws its water from Lake Huron a mile off Whitestone Point at AuGres in 50 feet of water while the City of Bay City's intake is in Saginaw Bay three and a half miles off Linwood. Water quality is considered superior from the lake source because the bay is shallower than the lake.
Algae blooms that once caused problems with taste and odor in city water are considered under control at present but many residents filter their water and complaints surface occasionally. The city has reported a higher level of toxins in the water than neighboring communities but officials say the water is within safe levels.
Midland and its surrounding area, which has brackish groundwater because of an underground sea of brine, led to the City of Midland entering into a partnership with the City of Saginaw in 1946 to acquire raw water from Lake Huron. This partnership created the Saginaw-Midland Municipal Water Supply Corporation that supplies both cities with raw water that is piped approximately seventy miles from its intake at Whitestone Point to each city's water treatment plant.
Bay City, which has had its own water intake and treatment plant since 1925, turned down an opportunity to merge with the Saginaw-Midland system on a narrow vote in 1971. The present intake was installed in 1952 and has been improved several times.
Another water quality factor is the periodic discharge of storm water, regularly reported in Bay City, Essexville and Saginaw. Discharges are now regulated in Michigan.
Based upon new federal rules, Michigan has adopted a general storm water permit that will require, among other things, cities, townships, and villages with a population under 100,000 in urbanized areas of the state to implement programs that identify and eliminate sources of untreated human waste entering separate storm water systems.
(Municipalities with a population of more than 100,000 served by separated sewers are already required to have a general storm water permit.)
The storm water permit program requires communities to address both illicit connections (inadvertent or illegal discharges from sanitary systems into separate storm water systems) and the discharge of inadequately treated sanitary waste from failed septic systems into storm drains.
The recommended sampling program for the Saginaw River/Bay will help local communities target those areas where illicit connections and/or failing on-site septic systems are contributing to violations of water quality standards for indicator bacteria.###
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