KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) — Kalamazoo City Commissioners approved a one year agreement with the City of Parchment to supply water wholesale while they collect more data on their PFAS contamination and sort out a permanent solution.
The City of Parchment will continue to run their own water system, do the billing and maintain their own infrastructure.
Instead of relying on the City’s own wells for water, it will now come from the Kalamazoo City Utility.
The contract gives the Utility oversite and approval of any decisions on extending the system. That may be necessary if tests show that neighborhoods that now depend on private wells need a safe alternative.
The water alone is projected to cost about $216,000 for the year. The cost of hooking up the Parchment system to the Kalamazoo Utility is estimated to cost about $300,000, which Parchment will be responsible to pay.
That funding could be covered in part or whole by the State, which has issued a disaster declaration and promised resources.
The contract does not call for reimbursement of the costs incurred by the Utility or the City of Kalamazoo for the emergency response to flush the system of contaminated water.Those drinks were on the city. This deal will mean they will start running a tab to be paid quarterly.
The Parchment City board will also have to approve the arrangement before they will set the rates. Construction continues to link the Parchment System to the Kalamazoo Utility at three locations, along G Avenue, at Park Avenue and at Spanish Road, at the city’s borders.
Governor Rick Snyder visited Parchment, touring a construction site Sunday where a water station is being built, and the bottled water distribution station at Parchment High School.
The Governor says his PFAS response team has been on the ground since the first hours after the test results came back.
He says he has been impressed with the community’s quick response.
The hours for bottled water pick-up and delivery will go back to the noon to 8 p.m. schedule and remain that way through Friday.
