Shelby Township issued the following announcement on July 15.
Shelby Township Supervisor Rick Stathakis cited safety, flexibility, financial security and freedom as reasons he was excited to break ground on the township's new 3.5 million gallon water reservoir facility on June 22 at 11441 24 Mile Road.
The reservoir and pump facility is part of the Shelby Township Board of Trustees' response to help mitigate possible future surges in peak water demand and minimize future wholesale rate increases from the Great Lakes Water Authority.
Existing water infrastructure improvement funds will finance this initial investment of $14 million. In addition, anticipated savings in GLWA wholesale water costs will result in a payback on the initial investment within six years.
"This facility ensures our safety with a reliable emergency water supply. It gives us the flexibility to purchase water at a reduced rate and store it for peak-hour use. It gives us the financial stability to ensure we are not surprised by future wholesale water rate increases from the GLWA," Township Supervisor Rick Stathakis said.
"Most importantly, though, it restores our freedom and allows us to remove the mandated irrigation ordinances. Once this facility is complete, our Board will be able to remove the irrigation ordinances that GLWA forced on our community."
The Board approved the recommendation of the township engineer and Department of Public Works Director Dave Miller to award the construction contract for the reservoir and pump facility to Pamar Enterprises, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $9,939,050 at its May 18 meeting.
At its April 20 meeting, the Board approved the purchase of the 2.68-acre vacant property to house the facility for $224,000. The project's total cost, including engineering and administrative fees and a 10 percent contingency, is not to exceed $14,079,875.
The water storage facility is the second step the Board has taken after the GLWA, the township's wholesale municipal water supplier, compelled the Shelby Township Department of Public Works to enact certain safeguards to ensure that exceedances the community-made during the summer of 2020 do not reoccur.
"One unforeseen consequence of the past year was the impact the summer and pandemic had on our local water usage," Miller said. "Because of a perfect storm of factors, our community exceeded its maximum allowable peak water usage as dictated by the Great Lakes Water Authority.
"Particularly in July, the township averaged more than our maximum permissible usage by as much as 10 percent. The most significant driver of this was lawn irrigation during peak hours, which the GLWA defines any time outside the 11 p.m.-5 a.m. window."
The Board's first action was modifying the township's existing Voluntary Irrigation Ordinance with a Mandatory Irrigation Ordinance. This action took effect on March 10.
Under it, residents will reduce non-essential water usage such as lawn irrigation by operating sprinklers connected to the municipal water system only between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. In addition, even-numbered addresses must sprinkle on even-numbered calendar dates, and odd-numbered addresses must sprinkle on odd-numbered calendar dates.
"Failure to reduce our peak-hour water usage, per the GLWA contractual limit, risks significant increases to our wholesale costs from the GLWA of $1.8 million annually," Miller said. "This wholesale increase would result in a mandated increase to our ratepayers of roughly 13% of a household's water bill, and these increases would last through 2027 and likely never be reduced. Adhering to the Mandatory Irrigation Ordinance is our one chance to avoid these recurring increased rates."
"This is our one chance to stop GLWA from exploiting the last year to raise our rates," Stathakis added. "Until we get our reservoir built, we must follow these ordinances."
Original source can be found here.
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