Bay City, Michigan 48706
Front Page 03/29/2024 05:18 About us
www.mybaycity.com January 31, 2013
(Prior Story)   Columns ArTicle 7857   (Next Story)


Saginaw-Midland Water Supply pumping station is located on Three Mile Road at Midland Road in Monitor Township. Pipelines go west to Midland and south to Saginaw.

PURE WATER: The Late Mike Studders Started the Ball Rolling on S-M Deal

EPA Testing Proves Superiority of Lake Huron Intake

January 31, 2013       1 Comments
By: Dave Rogers

Printer Friendly Story View

Who says one person can't make a difference?

About 12 years ago the late Mike Studders, a member of the Bay County Road Commission, was the lone eagle who began quiet talks with Saginaw and Midland officials to re-ignite a long dormant water merger deal.

The discussions were secret, sensitive and extremely tentative, but Studders persevered behind the scenes.

Studders soon was joined by Gerald M. Redmond, then road commission chairman, re-activating talks after a long period in which no deal was thought to be possible.

Studders was honored by the road commission for 12 years service after he was defeated in 2006 and he died in 2009 at age 70.

After 18 years of service, Redmond, Democrat, was replaced by Republican Mike Rivard on the road commission in the 2010 election.

But the ball was rolling on a potential deal that finally, this week, came to fruition.

Tom Paige, former Williams Township supervisor, picked up the ball and, along with Ken Miller, his predecessor as director of the Bay County Department of Water and Sewer, advanced it down the field.

The TD came at last!

When dozens of local officials from the county, three cities and 11 townships gathered yesterday to sign an agreement, neither Mr. Studders nor Mr. Redmond were in the room.

But the spirit of regional cooperation they launched was present as officials congratulated each other and prepared to move forward on building a new $59.6 million treatment plant.

In 1971, city voters rejected a proposed merger with the Saginaw-Midland system by about 150 votes on a question that required a "no" vote to approve the merger. Some city employees who feared job losses if the merger went through were reportedly the main opponents of the proposal.

The Safe Drinking Water Act was established to protect the quality of drinking water in the U.S.

This law focuses on all waters actually or potentially designed for drinking use, whether from above ground or underground sources. The law authorizes U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish minimum standards to protect tap water and requires all owners or operators of public water systems, including the Facilities, to comply with these primary, health-related standards.

State governments can be approved to implement these rules for U.S. EPA.

In order to meet the drinking water standards, many water treatment facilities follow some basic steps, including the following: intake screening to keep out fish and large debris; settling out of solids; and chemical treatment for purification and disinfection.

This treatment ensures that the water that people drink is clean and safe. Each facility is required to monitor and report on the quality of water supplied to its users.

Each of the facilities uses surface water from Saginaw Bay or Lake Huron as its source of raw water.

Bay County residents can be confident the right decision was made even though water will no doubt be more costly. The tab has not yet been presented, but the state may contribute part of the cost of the new plant through the Drinking Water Revolving Bond Fund.

One of the main concerns about the present Bay City water intake has been its source only half a mile off Linwood in Saginaw Bay.

Low water levels and increased runoff of contaminants from the huge Saginaw Bay Watershed have raised the cost of treatment and added chemicals to city water.

In the last decade, more than 150,000 cattle and pigs have been moved into factory farms in Huron and Tuscola counties, contributing to pollution and shoreline muck in the lower bay.

County commissioners Ernie Krygier and Kim Coonan have done heroic work in cleanup of tourist swimming beach sites at Bay City State Park, but the task is perhaps insuperable given the volume of manure runoff.

One solution is to move the source, and the Saginaw-Midland intake in Lake Huron at Whitestone Point is ideal, and, as it turned out, doable.

As water travels over the surface of the land, it dissolves naturally-occurring minerals, and can pick up substances resulting from human activity.

In the past two years, the EPA conducted tests of the water supplies of all three communities.

Inorganic constituents, such as salts and metals, are commonly detected in surface water. Inorganic constituents were detected in the samples from the Midland and Saginaw Facilities, and the Bay City Facility, respectively.

None of the inorganic constituents was detected above recommended drinking water levels.

Each sample was analyzed for the 17 dioxin/furan congeners considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be toxic to human health. None of the 17 WHO dioxin/furan congeners were detected in any sample.

Trihalomethanes are typically detected in treated drinking water. The chemicals are a result of the disinfection process. Treated water from each of the Facilities contained detectable levels of trihalomethanes.

A few of the samples also had very low, estimated detections of organic chemicals or pesticides.

These compounds could be a result of runoff or other sources. None of these organic compounds was detected in all of the samples, and there does not seem to be a pattern of widespread distribution of any contaminant. None of these organic compounds was found to exceed recommended levels.

The analytical results for May 2010 post-treatment samples are comparable to results in the most recent water quality reports for each Facility for the contaminants analyzed.

The Bay City water quality report indicates the highest running annual average for trihalomethanes was above the MCL. No other contaminants were detected above the MCLs in the water quality report samples.

Following are profiles of the three water systems that will be joined as a result of the agreement signed yesterday:

The Saginaw-Midland Water Supply System Corporation(SMMWSC)organized in 1946, is jointly owned and operated by the Cities of Midland and Saginaw, and has supplied potable water from Lake Huron since 1948. Water is drawn into the system through two intake structures located at the SMMWSC Whitestone Point Intake Facility. A 72-inch-diameter intake is located 1 mile offshore, and a second 66-inch-diameter intake (primary) is located 2 miles offshore approximately 53 feet beneath the water surface. The two intakes transport water though 65 miles of pipeline to the Midland and Saginaw Facilities to provide 230 million gallons per day of available capacity to the Midland and Saginaw Facilities.

The City of Midland owns and operates the Midland Facility, and source water is supplied through the SMMWSC intake. The Midland Facility provides a capacity of 48 million gallons of treated water per day to Midland area customers. In addition, a 110-million-gallon source water reservoir located north of the Midland Facility is used for flow equalization and emergency supply. The most recent report of the Midland Facility's water quality can be found at http://www.midlandmi.org/government/departments/utilities/water/ 09WaterQ.pdf.

The City of Saginaw owns and operates the Saginaw Facility, and source water also is obtained from SMMWSC through the Whitestone Point intakes described above. The Saginaw Facility provides a capacity of 53 million gallons of treated water per day to Saginaw Valley customers.

The most recent report of the Saginaw Facility's water quality can be found at http://www.saginawmi.com/Profiles/saginawregion2009.pdf

The Bay City Facility was built in 1979 and is owned and operated by the City of Bay City. Water is supplied to the facility through two 48-inch-diameter intakes within Saginaw Bay. The primary intake, installed in 1954, is located approximately 4 miles offshore, and the secondary intake, installed in 1922, is located approximately 0.75 mile offshore. The Bay City Facility provides 40 million gallons of treated water per day to Bay County customers. The most recent report of the Bay City Facility's water quality can be found at http://www.baycitymi.org/utilities/Water/WaterReport.pdf

Printer Friendly Story View
Prior Article

February 10, 2020
by: Rachel Reh
Family Winter Fun Fest is BACC Hot Spot for 2/10/2020
Next Article

February 2, 2020
by: Kathy Rupert-Mathews
MOVIE REVIEW: "Just Mercy" ... You Will Shed Tears, or at Least You Should

"The BUZZ" - Read Feedback From Readers!

philsmith_ Says:       On January 31, 2013 at 11:33 PM
Can any article writtne by Dave Rogers ever be written without his liberal slant and just the facts? I grow tired of reading all of his articles with his liberal bias clearly shown in each and every article.
Agree? or Disagree?


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)

More from Dave Rogers

Send This Story to a Friend!       Letter to the editor       Link to this Story
Printer-Friendly Story View


--- Advertisments ---
     


0200 Nd: 03-25-2024 d 4 cpr 0






12/31/2020 P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm

SPONSORED LINKS



12/31/2020 drop ads P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm


Designed at OJ Advertising, Inc. (V3) (v3) Software by Mid-Michigan Computer Consultants
Bay City, Michigan USA
All Photographs and Content Copyright © 1998 - 2024 by OJA/MMCC. They may be used by permission only.
P3V3-0200 (1) 0   ID:Default   UserID:Default   Type:reader   R:x   PubID:mbC   NewspaperID:noPaperID
  pid:1560   pd:11-18-2012   nd:2024-03-25   ax:2024-03-29   Site:5   ArticleID:7857   MaxA: 999999   MaxAA: 999999
claudebot