After months of back and forth, Independence Township and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) settled on a price tag for a new water pipeline to be installed on Maple Drive.
The Independence Township Board of Trustees voted 6-0 to accept the $426,650 state grant at the Aug. 9 regular board meeting.
Getting to the number was no easy task, according to Supervisor Pat Kittle. The township received a letter in March from the MDEQ telling them they had been approved for a water main pipeline along Maple Drive allowing for connection for eight residents whose wells had been contaminated by the release of petroleum from the Clark gas station on Dixie Highway.
The letter requested the township provide the state with a budget.
Originally township’s engineers HRC (Hubbell, Roth, and Clark) estimated $550,000, but the state said it was too high.
“New plans were created, leveraging directional boring technology with a poly based water main priced at $350,000. The state also denied this plan,” Kittle said. “The state finally came back with hard specifications requiring a coated ductile iron water main with special non-porous gaskets. A new HRC cost estimate meeting these new specifications of $426,650 was submitted.”
The township received word in a May 18 memo from MDEQ, the $426,650 budget was approved. They were told it had to be completed by the end of the September, otherwise they could lose their funding, so he gave the OK to his team to “damn the torpedos and run full speed ahead,” Kittle said.
He received the grant from the MDEQ on July 27, which included open start and end dates. Kittle said he was planning on using March as a start date because that’s when he gave his engineers the go-ahead.
However, MDEQ told Kittle the start date was when they co-signed the grant. Therefore, the township will not get reimbursed for the $40,000 it’s already spent in engineering services, the supervisor said.
Kittle said he’s not happy about that, but is glad the state approved the water main project.
“While I get short (fused) sometimes,” he said. “I am extremely grateful for the professionalism and concern of our Michigan Environmental Quality Department and everything they’re doing to help the fine residents of Independence Township.”
Eight houses tested positive for gasoline additive Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether (MTBE), so the state will pay the complete cost for the those homes to be hooked up to the new pipeline.
“They will pay for the watermain, gate valve, the gate valve to the house meter, from the meter to the inside plumbing and then capping the old private well, so it’s not used again,” Kittle said.
Because the MTBE plume is continuing to move, a ninth house on Maple Drive is now in question.
“We’re retesting the numbers of the ninth house to see if it was a false positive or if we really have a problem,” Kittle said.
The 17 other houses on the block will have access to the water main and a gate valve in front of their house, paid for by the state, but hooking up to that gate valve will cost them.
“If they want to connect after that, it will be the homeowner’s responsibility and we have amended our ordinances so they can amortize the cost over 10 years if they so wish,” he added. “Most of them will just pay cash, but there are a few hardships. We understand and try to accommodate them the best we can to encourage them to get off the private wells.”
If residents choose not to hook up to the water main at this time and their wells become contaminated, the state will pay the full cost for hookup and capping of their wells as they are doing for the current eight contaminated sites.
The $40,000 will come from the Water Fund balance, Kittle said.