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www.mybaycity.com September 19, 2010
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Commissioner Chris Shannon has asked attorney Timothy Ferrand to check into the legality of possibly selling and/or transferring the city's permit to a private company.

Bay City Weighing Whether to Abandon Current Water Source in Inner Bay

Out-City Water Customers Reportedly Prefer Whitestone Point Source

September 19, 2010       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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Bay City's current water source in inner Saginaw Bay and treatment in the current plant may be abandoned.

As several options are under consideration, including a new source in Lake Huron at Whitestone Point near AuGres, City Manager Robert V. Belleman has informed commissioners:

"Out-city customers of the City of Bay City water system are asking to have Option 1 (Current Source/Current Treatment of inner bay water) removed as an option."

Out-city customers apparently favor options two and three, getting raw water from the Saginaw-Midland Water Supply Company for treatment in the city's present plant or building a new membrane plant.

Commissioners have decided to review several reports that are being prepared by various consulting groups before making a decision on removal of Option 1, according to city sources.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Chris Shannon has asked attorney Timothy Ferrand to check into the legality of possibly selling and/or transferring the city's permit to a private company.

Responding to complaints about increases in water bills, Mr. Belleman said residents need to contact city staff to discuss individual bills. Commissioner James Irving said part of the increase in cost is the result of the extension of time of the bill from the normal 30 days to 45 days.

City officials are in negotiations with officials of the Bay County Department of Water and Sewer for purchase of water from the Saginaw-Midland line that runs through the county.

Tom Paige, former Williams Township supervisor, now director of the county department of water and sewer, is heading talks on behalf of the county.

The city has received a draft copy of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit from the MDNRE which will go into effect January 1, 2011, according to Steve Black, deputy city manager.

New to the permit is a requirement for Total Residual Chlorine (TRC) Minimization Program. The intent of this program is for the retention treatment basins to comply with 0.038 mg/l chlorine limit in the effluent from a basin during discharge.

Wrote Mr. Black: "We are to perform an 18 month study as to how we can achieve this goal under a variety of rain events. We are to make operational changes as well as needed facility modifications to operate at no more than an average of 1.5 mg/l chlorine as a discharge event average while maintaining fecal bacteria counts below 400 counts/100 ml. Then we are to conduct a total chlorine residual plume study in the stream after a discharge to the river. This new requirement is intended to protect aquatic species from toxic chlorine."

There are potential issues with this new requirement, wrote Mr. Black. The basins are not currently designed to achieve this lower chlorine effluent limit with all flow events. The requirement for the study to include variety of wet weather events could cause this study to exceed the 18 month study period, in fact it could take years. The City has experienced only one overflow event this year and then only from two of the five basins.

"Another change in the permit is limiting the rolling 12 month average of Mercury in the effluent to 5 ng/l. We currently have a 10 ng/l limit. We are achieving the 5 ng/l limit currently and expect to continue to do so, but we sampled rain that has exceeded 14 ng/l and as a combined sewer system the limit could be exceeded due to the contributions of storm water.

"Staff is currently negotiating these issues as well as the sampling frequencies of Retention Treatment Basin with the MDNRE. The permit should be made available for public comment in October."

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Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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