Wastewater Plant, Composting Program Top City Agenda

Traverse City commissioners will consider investing over $7.3 million in a project to replace eight membrane trains – essential filtration equipment at the city’s wastewater treatment plant – over the next eight years at their 7pm meeting tonight (Monday). Commissioners will also consider enrolling in an incentive program that would reward the city for switching to emergency power at the plant when the region’s grid faces potential brownouts. Tonight’s agenda also includes a recommendation from staff to extend the city’s composting pilot program through the end of 2026.

Wastewater Plant
After hearing a presentation in December from Jacobs – the firm that operates the city’s wastewater treatment plant – commissioners tonight will consider approving a plan to upgrade the city’s membrane trains on a rolling basis over the next eight years.

Each of the plant’s vital membrane trains has an estimated 10-year lifespan, according to City Director of Municipal Utilities Art Krueger. The city last replaced them starting with one in 2014 and tackling the rest between 2015 and 2020. Therefore, based on their “current conditions” as well as the need for “long-term planning,” staff are recommending a rolling replacement program to upgrade each train over the coming decade.

According to the agreement with Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions, the firm would replace one train per year starting in 2026 and continuing through 2033. The total cost would be $5,924,200 ($740,525 annually), with funds coming from the city’s sewer fund. The first year of the project requires some additional tank upgrades and other upfront work, which are budgeted in the contract costs. A three percent contingency brings the total contract to a not-to-exceed amount of $6,102,000.

Commissioners will also approve a contract with Jacobs for just under $1.25 million (including contingencies) to provide additional out-of-scope services during the year-one work, for a total project budget of over $7.3 million. Five township partners are expected to pay approximately 45 percent of the combined first-year costs, or $869,000, per their master sewer agreement with the city, according to Krueger.

Krueger says the phased strategy “supports system reliability, lifecycle cost management, and predictable annual budgeting.” The city’s Bay Brief also said that locking in pricing now will “protect against future market volatility.” According to Jacobs, the new generation of membrane equipment is more energy efficient, which should significantly reduce the city’s carbon emissions and “yield annual electricity savings of 30-50 percent.” The new membrane trains also have extended life expectancies of 15-20 years, Jacobs said.

Also related to the treatment plant, commissioners tonight will consider enrolling for six years in an incentive program that would reward the city for switching to emergency power at the plant when the region’s grid faces potential brownouts. Under the agreement with Voltus, a company that “pays energy users to reduce or shift electricity use in response to grid stress,” the city would switch to its own power at the plant when requested during peak energy usage periods. That could be for up to 4 hours per event, up to 16 events per year: 5 each in the summer and winter seasons, and 3 each in the fall and spring seasons.

“This initiative positions the city as a ‘last line of defense’ during peak-demand periods to help prevent regional brownouts or rolling blackouts,” says City Manager Benjamin Marentette. Because users are compensated for voluntarily going on backup generators, the program is expected to generate more than $57,000 in annual revenue to the city, Marentette says. Those revenues will be divided between the city’s water and sewer funds. According to Krueger, if “there is no emergency event – which historically has not occurred at the grid level – the city will be paid for the annual one-hour self-scheduled generator tests.”

Composting Program
Commissioners will consider approving extending grant-funded contracts with two community partners to continue the city’s compost and food reduction pilot program for another year through the end of 2026.

The contract extensions will include up to $30,000 with SEEDS and $12,000 with Carter’s Compost for continued support running the program, which “diverts food scraps and organic material from landfills and transforms them into nutrient-rich compost using a new in-vessel composting system,” according to the Bay Brief. The program is being funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), as well as a $250,000 USDA grant that funded the purchase of the city’s composting system. The enclosed unit can compost year-round in a controlled environment, reducing odors and improving moisture control.

According to the city, the first year of the pilot program was completed this fall “with strong participation and measurable environmental impact.” More than 58,000 pounds of food scraps were collected locally and processed into approximately 27.5 cubic yards of finished compost. According to the city, diverting food waste can deliver “significant environmental benefits” since decomposition in landfills generates “substantially more” of the greenhouse gas methane. “With organic material accounting for an estimated 38 percent of Michigan’s landfill waste, expanding local composting capacity plays a meaningful role in reducing emissions and supporting the city’s broader sustainability goals,” the Bay Brief states.

Photo credit: City of Traverse City