South Michigan News

The Berlin Township Waste Water Treatment Plant hosted a visit from U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg on Monday following the approval of federal project funds for improvements at the plant.

Walberg helped advance the project submitted by Berlin Township for $3,040,000 in funding as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, which was passed by Congress at the end of 2022 and signed into law.

The plant will use the funds to replace the effluent force main and related parts which discharge treated wastewater to the mouth of Swan Creek at Lake Erie. The investment would include new piping, as well as other parts such as isolation valves, cleanouts, and air/vacuum release valves for a complete replacement of the existing effluent force main.

"This has to be done. This is valuable to the community," Walberg said. "You can't have a community without water treatment if you're going to have a sewage system. You have to be confident, especially when you're around a body of water like Lake Erie, that you're doing it right."

The plant's current discharge system is a relic from the plant's original construction in the 1970s. The 12,000-foot pipe is 12 inches in diameter and made of asbestos concrete. Improvements would expand the diameter of the pipe up to 16 inches and replace the material with high-density polyethylene.

"(Asbestos concrete) is a good material left alone, but we're also talking about a 50-year-old pipe now," said Troy Brehmer, the director of wastewater treatment at Jones & Henry Engineers which contracts for Berlin Township. "There have been improvements over the years, but that pipe is original and that's the only way to get water from this site out to the lake."

One improvement that has been made in recent years is to the township's pumps that bring raw sewage into the plant to be treated. Without similar improvements to the discharge system, the plant can not take full advantage of those pumps.

"We can actually bring in more sewage than we can get rid of, which is not practical," said Jason Dobson, Berlin Township's waste water and water department superintendent. "We want to upsize the pumps that go out to the lake too so that we can discharge the same amount that we can bring in. … But we can't upsize the pumps without the fear of blowing the line apart."

Dobson said that the other concern is that the current system is reaching the end of its lifespan. With proper maintenance, asbestos concrete pipes are expected to last anywhere between 50-70 years, he said. A pump failure would not be an environmental disaster, but it would be costly.

"It would be a mess," Brehmer said. "The water is clean. It's been disinfected. But it's not potable water and we want to get that water to the approved discharge point and maintain that pipe. We can't expect that pipe to last forever and waiting for a catastrophic failure is not good planning."

Adding to the urgency is the township's continued expansion. According to census data, between 2000 and 2020, the population in the community grew by nearly 3,000.

"Berlin is growing," Dobson said. "We're at the point where we really have to start planning for the future and replace and repair things faster than they fail. And it's a challenge right now with the cost of everything and the lead times. You can't get parts like you used to be able to and supplies are in high demand."

Construction on the plant upgrades is expected to start in 2024 or 2025. Jones & Henry Engineers of Toledo is leading the project. Brehmer said there's still quite a bit of work to do and the project is still in the preliminary stages of design and development.

This project was a priority for Walberg following his reelection to the House in 2022. Each congressman has a limited number of projects to submit for funding and Walberg championed this one, his office said.

"When you have a growing community, you have to take this as an opportunity," Walberg said. "I'd much rather be circumspect, do the due diligence, and talk to the people who really know and get this approved as a federal nexus. … Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. This one won."

This article was published in the Monroe Evening News on July 13.

Original source can be found here.