The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
City shuts down water softener
Move expected to thwart lawsuit by Chelsea Investment Group
By Jennifer McArdle, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: March 23, 2006
Soft water for Chelsea residents may be affected following the city council's March 14 decision to shut down one of the city's reverse osmosis units.
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Chelsea City Manager Michael Steklac said two units currently treat city water to soften water for residents. The problem lies in the disposal of a byproduct of the reverse osmosis process, which is discharged into the city's sanitary sewer system, contributing to a capacity problem at the Veteran's Park Lift Station. The capacity problem at the lift station has prevented new developers from being able to connect to the system.
Steklac said litigation was filed in Washtenaw County Circuit Court last month against the city of Chelsea and the city manager by Chelsea Investment Group, LLC, developer of the Heritage Pointe site.
Shutting down one of the units is expected to free up capacity at the Veteran's Park Lift Station, which would in effect allow the developer to connect to the city's sewer system.
"In exploring options for regaining sewer system capacity, which would allow Heritage Pointe and other developments to proceed, the staff and City Council have explored shutting down one of the reverse osmosis units permanently until the issues of alternatives for RO discharge are resolved," Steklac said at the Chelsea City Council meeting March 14.
One of the byproducts of the reverse osmosis process is something called reverse osmosis concentrate, which is essentially water that is rejected during the reverse osmosis process. RO concentrate contains a concentration of chemicals including calcium and phosphorus.
When the water treatment plant was originally built, the plan was to discharge the RO concentrate into Letts Creek or to use deep well injection. Instead, a decision was made to have the concentrate temporarily discharged into the city's sanitary sewer system, allowing the city to keep the project on schedule with the terms of the Michigan Drinking Water Revolving Fund loan while the city evaluated the other discharge options.
But the impact of discharging the concentrate into the city's sewer system was largely underestimated. Original projections indicated that a maximum of 125,000 gallons of concentrate would be discharged into the sewer system on a daily basis. At peak output, the reverse osmosis system actually sends 414,000 gallons of reserve osmosis concentrate to the sanitary sewer system daily, and the average discharge of concentrate is 250,000 gallons per day.
Steklac said the city initially considered shutting down both reverse osmosis units to resolve the capacity problem in the sewer system.
"The city staff and engineers have explored the possibility to restore capacity to the sanitary sewer system by shutting down the reverse osmosis system, potentially freeing up 414,000 gallons per day of capacity in the system," Steklac said. "However, this would mean that the city would be delivering hard water to its water customers at 400 ppm or 23.39 grains per gallon. Because of the impact on the city's water customers, the city staff has not recommended that the City Council implement this option.
"The city staff continued to work to gather data that would allow the city to obtain a discharge permit to Letts Creek."
Steklac cited a number of advantages to shutting down one of the units. He said both reverse osmosis units are only needed to provide soft water during periods of peak water demand, typically in late spring, summer and early fall.
"During most times of the year, water system demand is low enough to permit the city to provide softened water with the permeate from a single RO unit," Steklac said.
Another advantage of shutting down one of the units is that the operation of a single reverse osmosis unit will allow the water department staff to continue gathering data on phosphorous concentrations in the concentrate. Steklac said the city may be able to use this data to obtain a discharge permit or develop other solutions for addressing the concentrate issue.
He said operational costs, including the costs of chemicals and electricity, could decrease due to the lower use of the reverse osmosis units, as well.
But the disadvantage is that residents could have hard water at times.
"The disadvantages of shutting down one of the two reverse osmosis units is that during certain peak water use periods, the city will be delivering partially softened water to its water customers," he said.
Steklac recommended that the City Council offer to shut down one unit in negotiations regarding the Chelsea Investment Group's litigation. But Council Trustee Frank Hammer took it one step further and made a motion to shut down one reverse osmosis unit now, rather than waiting.
"I think we need to take some pressure off the Vet's Park Station," Hammer said.
The motion was supported by Council Trustee Jamie Bollinger and passed unanimously. Mayor Ann Feeney and Council Trustee Cheri Albertson were not present.
"Whether they're building out there or not, we have an overload problem at the Vet's Park Station," Bollinger said.
But the city also faces the issue of whether the reverse osmosis units are working correctly, said Trustee Joe Merkel.
"These systems are just not working in Michigan. We're not the only one having that problem," he said.
Hammer said the city owes its residents soft water, but it also needs to determine why the units are not working correctly.
"We also owe (citizens) the intent of finding out whether or not the system is ever going to work," he said.
"We're doing everything we can to correct the problem," Bollinger added. "We're doing the best we can."
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