The St. Ignace Wastewater Treatment Plant recently replaced vinyl linings in treatment cells 1-A, 1- B, 1-C, Flocculation Cell 2, and Polishing Cell 4, and built the new Disinfectant Units and Screening Building 2 to house screening and ultraviolet disinfectant equipment. Cell 3, which was used as a sludge settling cell, has been put out of service because of a high amount of sludge and damage to the cell's lining. Department of Public Works Director Les Therrian has suggested cleaning and abandoning Cell 3 and instead building a new cell 4A and sludge drying beds to reduce the cost of sludge removal at the plant. (St. Ignace Wastewater Department drawing) St. Ignace residents may soon get an increase in sewer service rates so the city can upgrade problems in ithe system, Department of Public Works Director Les Therrian told the Utilities Committee Wednesday, February 10. The rate hike would be the subject of a public hearing and would need approval from the City Council to become a reality.

Mr. Therrian is suggesting that the city take advantage of a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan with a 35% break on interest to fund a $1.5 million project to create a new settling lagoon and sludge drying beds at the sewage treatment plant, which will allow sludge to be removed more regularly and at a lower cost.

One of the major problems in the system, he said, is that one of the largest lagoons, cell three, is full of sludge and the liner has been compromised so that the 25-milliongallon cell can no longer be used for sewage treatment. Because of cost, the replacement of cell three's liner was not included in a project completed in 2009, which replaced all other cell liners.

“We have to shut a pond down to take out sludge, and we can't shut that cell down,” Mr. Therrian said. “There is nowhere else to store the wastewater.”

The expense of replacing cell three would be higher, he said, than the plan he suggested, which includes cleaning and abandoning cell three, installing a new, one-million gallon cell called four-A, and adding sludge drying beds.

City Council member Don Gustafson said he believes sewer rate increases could hurt the local economy, but agreed it may be the only way to pay for the proposed improvements.

“Nobody wants to see rates go up,” Mr. Therrian said. “This is something that needs to be done in the next few years.”

In the treatment plant's current system, several lagoons allow for sludge from the wastewater to settle to the bottom, which must regularly be removed by a contractor that charges to inject this sludge into the ground.

The other option, Mr. Therrian said, is to build a 30-by-150-foot sludge drying bed at the wastewater treatment plant, where sludge could regularly be pumped and left to dry. The city could also dump street sweeping refuse, considered industrial waste, in the drying bed and, once a year, haul the combined waste to a landfill in Dafter.

This dried sludge, he said, is cheaper to dispose of than the wet sludge that would otherwise need to be dumped at the landfill. The new system would also allow the sewer department to budget for yearly sludge removal, Mr. Therrian said, instead of periodically being stuck with an expensive bill from contractors to remove and dispose of it.

The Reagon Street lift station, another chronic problem in the sewer system, also will soon need to be replaced, according to Mr. Therrian.

“That is a ticking time bomb,” said city worker Bill Fraser.

Most of the sewage in St. Ignace goes through this station, Mr. Therrian said, before it is pumped uphill toward the wastewater treatment plant on North State Street next to Mackinac County Airport. The 20-year-old lift station needs serious work to assure that a catastrophic breakdown won't cause sewer back-up in the city, he said, and replacing pumps could also greatly reduce electric costs at the station.

The city would need to collect $4.75 more a month for the average residential customer in 2013 to pay for the treatment plant work, according to preliminary estimates.

This estimate is based on an average residential use of 3,000 gallons a month and proposed increases of .25¢ per 1,000 gallons in use fees for all four years and increases of .50¢ in the flat rate for the first three years and an increase of .25¢ in the flat rate in 2013.

Comparing the average sewer bill of $26.04 per month for residential users with an average bill in 2013 of $30.79 per month, the gradual rate increase would mean most residential customers would pay 18% more in 2013 than in 2009, an increase of about 4.5% each year. These are preliminary estimates and have not yet been considered by the St. Ignace City Council.

City Manager Eric Dodson said there would be a public hearing before any such rate increase is considered by the Council.

Mr. Gustafson said before considering such a rate increase, the City Council should be assured that waiting for another funding option or reducing expenses in the sewer department would not be a better way to pay for the improvements.

With only two sewage employees, supplemented by occasional work by Department of Public Works employees, expenses are as low as they can get for the sewage department, Mr. Therrian said.

“The biggest expense we have,” he said, “is electricity.”

Providing the funding to eventually make repairs and replace parts at the Reagon Street lift station, which he estimated would cost about $100,000, would greatly reduce this electric bill.

“I would say we are as lean as we can get,” Mr. Dodson said. “We are probably too lean.”

Mr. Therrian admitted that stimulus funding or other grant opportunities in the future could potentially give the city a better deal than the USDA 35% reduced interest loan, but solving the problem now would be cheaper in the long run than risking mandated upgrades or potential fines from the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment (DNRE).

“It is certainly only a matter of time before the DNRE decides it is time to do something there,” Mr. Dodson said. “They could mandate we do it much sooner. Then you're really in trouble.”

The loan would charge the city about 1.6% interest, Mr. Therrian said, and would require repayment over 40 years. If the city paid a portion of the loan principal each year, he said, the loan could be paid off in 20 years, which would make sense, since sewer plant components often require replacements in 25 years or so.

To make the December 31 deadline to take advantage of the reduced-interest loan, Mr. Therrian said the city would need to start the process soon.

The Utilities Committee voted to allow Mr. Therrian to continue the process of exploring these improvements to the sewage system, and asked him to report back with information on what the project would cost now, compared with what it would cost if they missed the deadline for the USDA loan. This vote was 2-0 in favor, with Mr. Della-Moretta absent for the meeting.

St. Ignace City Council voted Monday, March 1, to authorize an expense of $7,500 to allow the engineering firm C2AE of Escanaba to complete a preliminary engineering plan for the project.

Committee members plan to meet again at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 4, to receive an update on the project from Mr. Therrian and to further discuss sewer rates. Committee meetings, as well as city council meetings, are open to the public.

The utilities committee consists of city council members Tom Della-Moretta and Don Gustafson, and Mayor Paul Grondin.

Other Improvements

Funded through Michigan's State Revolving Fund, Phase I of the sewer system improvement has already been completed, as was mandated by the state's former Department of Environmental Quality, now part of the DNRE.

These state-mandated improvements included replacing the vinyl liners of all five operating cells at the wastewater treatment plant, building a new building to house the screening system and a new ultraviolet disinfection system, replacement of the Heritage lift station, and replacement of PVC forcemain pipes with 100-year iron piping.

The deadline for all these projects was November 2009, and they were all completed before this date.