There’s a reason residents and visitors in downtown Port Huron can’t smell the treatment processes going on inside the city’s wastewater plant.
But officials said its odor control system needs a $2.2 million overhaul to keep it that way — and to ensure a non-toxic environment for workers inside.
On Monday, Port Huron City Council members will consider a bid to begin the system’s replacement with its sludge storage tanks in the first of multiple phases.
Currently, fans pull air from several treatment facilities within the plant, including the tanks, before chemicals are used to sterilize odors before they’re vented out.
In a memo to council members, city officials said the chemicals — hypochlorite and sodium hydroxide — are “very toxic, create harsh environments for staff and equipment and are dangerous to handle,” and that “the worst of the odors escape” from the solids tanks.
Now, city staff proposes transitioning from one large odor control system to smaller ones isolated to specific treatment areas. That means beginning to replace the chemical-based system among the eight storage tanks first with ion-exchange and carbon units, using outside air to neutralize odors instead.
With the odor system nearing the end of its 15- to 20-year lifespan, Public Works Director Eric Witter said they also want to prevent any damaging wear on the infrastructure itself down the road.
“It’s not just the chemicals that are corrosive,” he said in an interview Friday. “It’s the hydrogen sulfide that’s generated through the (treatment) process that causes corrosion issues in concrete and steel.”
Witter said they want to begin the transition by December. The current system will remain operational throughout the process.
Breaking up the costs to break up odors
Witter said he understands Port Huron is in a unique position.
Located along the St. Clair River, the sludge tanks are well-concealed inside the brick walls of the Merchant Street plant and accessible only for maintenance from rooftop hatches – passers-by may not immediately realize there are odors nearby to control in the first place.
“We’re one of the few (wastewater plants) that’s completely enclosed because of our location," Witter said. “Wastewater plants are typically open to the environment. In the mid-'70s, when they upgraded the plant because of the downtown business district, there was federal funds to fully enclose (with) all the brickwork. Typical wastewater plants aren’t brick buildings, they’re not enclosed. But this one is.”
According to the city, the wastewater treatment plant was built in 1951. It serves about 55,000 customers, including those immediately outside of Port Huron in three surrounding townships.
Under agreements with the other communities, the city isn’t responsible for all $2.2 million of the cost of the replacement project. Roughly $295,300 would come from Port Huron Township, $119,700 from Kimball Township and $305,900 from Fort Gratiot.
The city of Port Huron has $1.3 million budgeted for the work, but would be responsible for just over $1.49 million of the final bid.
Other city business on Monday’s agenda
The odor control system is part of more than $3.4 million in project expenditures in total up for consideration at Monday’s council meeting.
The others include:
- $559,860.22 for removal and replacement of concrete curbs and gutters and street resurfacing on 11th Avenue
- $463,722 for concrete panel replacement on 16th Street between Howard and Gillett streets and 24th Street between Dove Road and Cleveland Avenue
- $108,425 for the Gratiot and Keewahdin meter pit replacement
- $46,550 for painting the northern service center booster station, among other infrastructure
- $43,550.60 for a skid steer loader for the city’s streets division
- $12,950.60 to buy and install a new swing area at Lincoln Park
Port Huron City Council members meet at 7 p.m. in the meeting chambers of the Municipal Office Center, 100 McMorran Blvd. Meetings are live-streamed online and available for viewing afterward on YouTube.
Agendas can be found at porthuroncitymi.iqm2.com/Citizens/calendar.aspx.
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.
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