Officials close to water plant solution

Wed, Jul 16, 2008    to del.icio.us

After two years of whittling down their options, area leaders seem to have landed on a water supply expansion plan.

The Northwest Ottawa Water System committee began with 18 options more than a year ago, and by Tuesday narrowed them down to two.

"We're almost to the point where we only have one option left, which is amazing," Grand Haven City Manager Pat McGinnis said.

The water system currently serves 42,000 people — but during peak summer usage hours, NOWS has had to purchase water from the Grand Rapids system or impose sprinkling restrictions.

Elected officials from Grand Haven, Spring Lake, Ferrysburg, and Grand Haven and Spring Lake townships spoke favorably of a $17 million water plant expansion and the construction of a second pumping system for $4.5 million. This alternative, dubbed option A, is $9 million cheaper and will cost $200,000 less per year to operate than the other option reviewed Tuesday night at the Grand Haven Community Center.

Grand Haven Township is the only member of the Northwest Ottawa Water System that has already voiced board support for option A.

"I'm here tonight to say our township, which is one of the major users of the system, (is) ready to support proposal A," Township Supervisor Joanne Marcetti said.

If the five municipalities partnering with NOWS soon agree on option A, construction could begin in March 2009, and the project could be complete in October 2011, engineers said.

Option B would take a year longer to finish.

The option A plant expansion includes modifications and improvements because the facility is around 20 years old, according to David Bratt, vice president of Grand Rapids engineering firm Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber.

"There's a lot of things that are wearing out," Bratt said.

Option B involves replacing the inner workings of the water plant with a membrane system, which can handle lower quality water better than the existing system, engineers said.

Adding a second pumping system, which was part of both options, will allow for the plant to backwash one of the Lake Michigan filtration galleries while the other one continues to pump water into the pump.

Now, with only one pumping system, the plant has to completely shut down for at least an hour to backwash sediments out of the galleries, according to Grand Haven Water Facilities Manager Joe VanderStel.

Both options would expand the plant's capacity from the present 15.5 million to 23.25 million gallons per day, which would adequately supply the area in the future, Ottawa County Public Utilities Director Ken Zarzecki said.

"I like to think when we go to 23.25 (million gallons per day), it will be the last expansion here ever — or at least for a long time," Zarzecki said.

Several audience members, including Grand Haven City Councilman John Naser, pointed out the membrane system would filter out a greater number of water contaminants, such as viruses.

Grand Haven Township Manager Bill Cargo said both options could produce much purer water than is currently found in the Grand Rapids system.

McGinnis said the five municipal boards involved with NOWS still have to figure out how the project will be funded.

"The county is going to build it for us, but we need to borrow the money," he said.