Sanitary sewers' completion delayed

Published: Monday, 2/3/2014

BY CARL RYAN BLADE STAFF WRITER

OTTAWA LAKE The harsh winter weather has delayed completion of the $3.3 million project along Memorial Highway to Sylvania that will bring sanitary sewers to this small Michigan village just north of the state line.

Whiteford Township has given its contractor, Dunnigan Brothers Inc. of Jackson, Mich., a 90-day extension to finish the job, which had been scheduled to be completed by the end of January. The weather just turned on them, township Supervisor Walter Ruhl said. Its pretty hard to get machinery to work when its 0 degrees.

He said the project, which includes boring through ground and installing a 6-inch line, is already two-thirds to three-quarters done. They ran into a lot more rock than they figured. I think they probably will take every bit of the new time limit. I think this is going to be one bad winter.

The project is needed. The township was found in violation of Michigans Clean Water Act nearly five years ago when E. coli bacteria turned up in a ditch and is under state order to fix the problem. A $2,718,000 federal grant and $680,000 loan are financing the project.

An August groundbreaking at the Ottawa Lake Fire Hall monument marked the projects start. The site is the location of the projects main pumping station.

Mr. Ruhl has worked three years to make the project a reality. Many Ottawa Lake households lack even septic systems, and wastewater runs into a storm sewer that runs into a creek. Other homes with septic systems are on rock or clay, which is Ottawa Lakes geology, and drain into the water table.

The project will bring sanitary sewers to about 100 Ottawa Lake users, business and residential, who never have had sewers. An arrangement negotiated with Sylvania includes a 40-year contract that allows Ottawa Lake to send up to 125,000 gallons a day to Sylvanias sewer system.

Sylvania contracts with Lucas County to send more than 2 million gallons of sewage a day for treatment and has plenty of unused capacity with its 5,900 customers. The gallon limit with Sylvania effectively limits the number of customers to no more than 300.

Read the original post:
Sanitary sewers' completion delayed