Membrane water filtration plants have proliferated in the Great Lakes area since the first at Marquette in 1997. Bay City-Bay County Aim to Use Membrane Plant for Ultra High Quality Water
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Early residents of Bay City drew water directly from the polluted Saginaw River, and many deaths from cholera resulted.
At one point early in the last century city residents noticed a fishy taste in the water. Researcher Donald Comtois of the Saginaw River Marine Historical Society said a main water cistern was uncovered, and guess what was found?
It was full of carp!
We are many moons past the carp-in-the-water days, but still in the relatively dark ages regarding water.
City residents periodically have rejected -- who knows why? -- proposals to partner with the Saginaw-Midland system and to expand the city filtration plant. Perhaps the most egregious error occurred in 1969 when by a 2-1 ratio voters here rejected a deal with S-M and to make matters worse lost an $8.2 million federal grant.
Only three so-called "silk-stocking" precincts, the 1st and 2nd of the 2nd Ward and the 3rd of the 3rd Ward, approved a merger proposal that went down 3,084 for to 6,699 against.
Earlier, voters had narrowly approved a ban on the merger and the plant expansion project. Richard Bukowski, retiring 5th ward commissioner and chairman of the water committee, called it "one of the most misunderstood questions to come about in a long time. Facts were overcome by emotion."
Francis E. Voisine, chairman of the county water committee, said: "We gave it our last shot and our best shot, but it is still a democracy." He noted the county had spent about $70,000 on the failed project.
Then city manager Larry Collins said part of the reason for the defeat was anticipated increases in water rates, which he predicted would increase anyway. Yearly city water rate then was $20.40 per household and would have risen to about $37.50 a year with approval of the S-M plan.
Given an average MONTHLY water rate per four person household of $20 today, we have experienced about a 1100 percent increase in cost since 1969 when city water cost about $1.66 per month per household.
Plus, the quality factor is critical. We draw water from the shallow Saginaw Bay, the receptacle of agricultural and other wastes from the massive Saginaw Valley watershed. Our water is drinkable only after extensive treatment, and recent reports have noted higher levels of treatment chemicals than federal standards allow. Tastes and odors from algae occasionally are noticed by water customers.
Overflows of partially treated sewage into the Saginaw River are periodically reported, sometimes coming from Flint and Saginaw through tributaries. These contaminated sewage flows eventually make their way to the bay where the city water intake is located two miles off Linwood.
Residents are understandably concerned, even though the city's heavy treatment protocols provide drinking water that is acceptable and meets health standards.
The solution?
City Manager Robert V. Belleman and Thomas Paige, manager of the Bay County Department of Water and Sewer, are proposing a $50-$60 million membrane water filtration plant using micro-filtration technology.
Chemicals, other than ordinary table salt, are not used in the membrane filtration process that replaces previous treatment using chlorine gas for disinfection.
The city commission and the county board of road commissioners have recently approved the goal of making a deal with the Saginaw-Midland Water Supply Corporation and building a new membrane treatment plant to provide high quality water to local homes and businesses.
Actually, in 2009 S-M agreed to provide up to 22 million gallons of raw water per day to Bay City-Bay County. Plans call for a water authority to distribute to the city, Essexville, Hampton Township, Pinconning, ten other townships and three private water associations.
Contracts between the city and the county for filtered water from the present city plant expire in 2015.
If final negotiations are successful, the new plant would link to a water source from 50 miles away that has been a dream of local residents for 80 years -- Lake Huron at Whitestone Point near AuGres.
In fact is that the lines from Lake Huron run right through Bay County, branching off to Midland and Saginaw from a pumping station on Three Mile Road next door to the Monitor Township hall.
The Foster Group (TFG) consulting firm "indicates that constructing a new membrane water filtration plant utilizing S-M raw water supply is more economical approach for providing wholesale water service to the Bay County community," states a city commission resolution adopted Sept. 26.
Mr. Paige said the project would likely use as a treatment model the system used by the Upper Peninsula city of Marquette that utilizes raw water from Lake Superior for its potable water needs.
This source is of extremely high quality and previous treatment was not required. However, an administrative order to the city required a treatment facility be established.
Extensive pilot testing was performed over a period of six months. This showed that the MEMCOR® Continuous Micro-filtration (CMF) was capable of producing high quality filtrate from extremely cold raw water. Temperatures ranged from a low of 0.5 degrees C to a high of 10 degrees C.
The city of Marquette, with the engineering consulting services of Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber, chose The Siemens Water Technologies MEMCOR® CMF for the following reasons:
Cold water application
Ease of operation
Low operating costs
High recovery rate
Low operator training time
Return backwash to Lake Superior
Log 3 pathogen removal.
In September of 1997, a MEMCOR® system was commissioned consisting of eight (8) 90M10C units producing a nominal flow of 7.2 MGD and 4.2 MGD during winter operation.
MEMCOR® CMF units were able to perform extremely well even at near freezing temperatures, according to company reports.
"The new system, the first to be used at a Michigan water plant, eliminates compliance requirements associated with air quality and toxic chemical releases," say Marquette officials.
Is this type of plant really necessary?
Read a summary of a United Nations World Water Development Report from 2006 called "Water, A Shared Responsibility," that concluded:
* Water quality is declining in most regions, affecting the diversity of freshwater species and ecosystems
* Poor water quality is a key cause of poverty. Around 3.1m people died in 2002 as a result of diarrheal diseases and malaria, 90% of whom were children
* The world will require 55% more food by 2030, increasing the demand for irrigation which already accounts for 70% of all freshwater used by humans
* Many places are "losing" 30-40% of water through leakage and illegal extraction
* Political corruption is estimated to cost the water sector millions of dollars every year and undermines services
Carlos Fernandez-Jauregui, deputy co-ordinator of the UN's World Water Assessment Programme, said he hoped the publication's findings would push governments and organizations into action.
"If we continue business as usual the water crisis will get worse - not only in developing countries but also in developed countries," he said. "We ignore this at our peril."
Action is what is on the Bay City-Bay County agenda, we hope immediately. We eagerly await details of when the agreement with Saginaw-Midland will be reached, how the proposed new plant will be financed and when it can be operational.
Then it will be up to local voters to exercise judgment on the water system financing plan. Hopefully we will learn from mistakes of the past and plan for the future.###
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