A Year in Review
by Steve Boss, Superintendent of Public Works
The combination of maintenance procedures for our existing facilities, and construction of new water and sewer mains resulted in another very busy year for our department. One of the biggest accomplishments was the cleaning out of the west sludge storage lagoon at the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). It commenced one year later than anticipated, and this resulted in two major physical changes in the lagoon
environment. First, there were odors coming from the east lagoon after the winter ice melted, because that lagoon had to take an extra year’s worth of sludge. Second, the bacteria that
normally breakdown the sludge, reduced what once was twelve million gallons of sludge in the west lagoon to six million gallons, which saved the Township $228,000 in cleaning costs. We are currently making plans to clean the east lagoon in 2008.
Two major waterline extensions were added; 68th and Warner which serves Highland Trails and Whispering Pines, and Placid Waters which serves the area from Valley View Ave. west to 84th Ave., including the Hidden Forrest development. In conjunction with these extensions are two pressure reducing valve stations; one on M-45, and the other on 68th Ave., which were
required by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) to lower water
pressures west and north of town. The 16” waterline which runs south down 68th Ave. to The Woods housing development, was also extended to Fillmore St., along with a water pumping station built to satisfy MDEQ water system flow requirements. The water system can now be fed from two different sources: the Lake Michigan Drive pipeline and/or the Fillmore St. line. This greatly increases the reliability of the entire water system. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (E.P.A.) required Vulnerability and Emergency Response Plan states that all pumping stations must blend in to the surrounding area, so as not to be easily identified by
potential vandals. The design of the building is quite unique for a pumping station.
Other smaller extensions of the water and sewer system were; 48 West, Dewpointe West,
Campus View Phase 8, and Mystic Woods. With all of the above additions, our department is responsible for the operation of 59 miles of water main, and 50 miles of sewer main.
In the Township office, our water and sewer billing clerks have initiated two new programs for bill payment. The first will, if so desired by the customer, take the quarterly utility bills
directly out of their checking accounts. All that is necessary is for the customer to bring in a
cancelled check, and sign up for the program. Many homeowners have already taken action
on this program. In consideration of an increasing number of customers who are experiencing
difficulties in paying their utility bills on time, the next program we are doing is to allow
customers to come to the Township office and set up a payment plan for an existing unpaid
bill. This is a signed agreement between the homeowner and the Township which outlines a time frame that payments will be made, as well as a payoff date. This will help avoid water shutoffs due to the inability of some customers to pay a large bill all at once. There were 87 water and 67 sewer new hookups in 2007, bringing the total number of connections to 2,178 water and 1,709 sewer customers.
The Township purchases fully treated water from the City of Grand Rapids, and this year the total was 524 million gallons, a 10% increase over 2006. The WWTP processed 317 million gallons, a 2% decrease from 2006. This difference in usage may reflect, among other things, the use of low-flow plumbing fixtures that are slowly replacing older fixtures. Our public works personnel began sampling the drinking water for disinfection by-products. These are chemical compounds that are known to be present in water after chlorine has been applied. Chlorine is always present in your drinking water to stop bacteria from growing in all of the mains, service lines, and internal plumbing in the home. The EPA requires that all
municipalities have only a very small amount of these by-products in the water and Allendale has less than half of these EPA maximum levels.
We are required to test the incoming sewage to the WWTP for the presence of mercury. The EPA basically allows for almost no mercury to be put into the Grand River. Through testing, we have determined that there are low levels of mercury in the sewer lines. As a result, we have outlined a mercury detection program which has been approved by the MDEQ, and are
currently trying to track the source down. As little as a broken thermometer spilled down the sewer years ago could account for the levels that we are finding.
The number of employees in our department has remained fairly constant over the years, with many that have over 10 years experience. This results in very little time spent in job retraining, and is helpful in times of emergencies because of the knowledge of water and sewer
infrastructure and control systems. There have been an increasing number of mandated
programs such as Mercury Minimization, Stage II Disinfection By-products, Minimized
Chlorine in Effluent, and Vulnerability and Emergency Response that have taken much time and expenditures. The cross-connection control section of our water ordinance was recently updated and greatly enhanced concerning the number of re-inspections of existing commercial and industrial establishments. This, also, was mandated by MDEQ, but is a very worthwhile and effective means of protecting the drinking water in our system from possible chemical and bacteriological contamination. We have had to absorb these additional workloads as best that we are able. Our staff is well trained by job experience and state sponsored seminars.
Our office is located at the Township Hall at 6676 Lake Michigan Drive. Please call
Steve Boss at 895-6295, ext.13 with any questions. The WWTP is at 11624 40th Ave. and is available for tours by appointment.
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