WATER FOLLIES: Bay City, Saginaw-Midland Can't Reach Agreement
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The Bay City system was required to eliminate taste and odor problems from the water source in the shallow Saginaw Bay.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of three articles about the water system of Bay City and efforts to furnish customers with adequate supplies of pure water.)
Louis B. Harrison, Bay City chemist, in 1924 devised one of the nation's finest water filtration systems using chlorine and charcoal.
The Bay City system was required to eliminate taste and odor problems from the water source in the shallow Saginaw Bay.
Thomas Starkweather, local property appraiser, contends that the public trust doctrine applies to bodies of water, like Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron, by virtue of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
It would not be be hard to apply that doctrine, which has roots in English common law, to require that water be provided free to citizens at their residences. The cost of infrastructure and treatment, certainly, would fall to the citizens themselves under any standard of law.
However, the Public Trust Doctrine is a body of common and statutory law that provides that the state holds title to navigable waters in trust for public purposes.
The doctrine provides that the legislature, as the state's representative, must not only take action to prevent endangerment of the trust but it must also take affirmative steps to protect the trust.
It would not be difficult to contend that, legally, the state could be required to provide potable water in line with the idea of "endangerment of the trust."
Industrialization led to increased pollution, endangering the population that depended on the public waters for existence.
Several hundred deaths in Bay County annually from typhoid was a dramatic demonstration that the public trust was being ignored by state and local governments alike.
"In 1937, Bay City constructed a water softener system at its filtration plant with a federal WPA (Works Progress Administration) grant," wrote Raymond J. Kuhn, consultant for Bay County, in a 1973 report.
While Saginaw had purchased land at Athlone Beach in Bangor Township for a water filtration plant, it soon abandoned that plan and drew river water into a new Court Street filtration plant.
After less than a decade, Saginaw saw that highly polluted river water was not acceptable and made plans for a new source. In 1948 an intake and filtration plant at Whitestone Point near AuGres was constructed and placed in operation. Midland became a partner.
"Bay City at that time was offered a partnership in the line but turned it down," wrote Mr. Kuhn.
Two years later, as pollution worsened, the Saginaw-Midland System offered Bay City a chance to buy water from Whitestone. But the city commission turned it down.
A new Linwood water intake eased pollution problems for a time, but in 1963 the Michigan Department of Health formally requested the city seek a new water source -- suggesting a purchase of water from the Saginaw-Midland system.
In 1964, Saginaw-Midland rejected Bay City partnership and offered a contract for water purchase. That idea was turned down by Bay City. The controversy caused Bay City residents to oppose any S-M deal.
(NEXT: Low water, algae in bay cause continued quality deterioration; Bay County forms Board of Public Works to seek new source separate from Bay City.)
Related Article . . . August 29, 2010
Previous Article . . . August 29, 2010
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