KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) — The Kalamazoo City Commission is expected Monday night to approve an agreement with the City of Parchment to purchase their water system.
Parchment signed a one-time emergency contract to buy water wholesale from the Kalamazoo City Utility after state tests revealed all three of their city wells were pumping out water with dangerous levels of PFAS.
The Kalamazoo Water Utility would acquire the Parchment Water System for $497,000 and the small community would become a retail customer, the utility assuming responsibility for billing, repairs and maintenance.
The Parchment City Commission voted to open negotiations with the Utility last November and this is the resulting agreement. There has been alot of community support for the concept, with high praise for the regional utility’s quick response to the PFAS emergency last summer.
The City Utility operates as a separate enterprise fund within Kalamazoo City Hall, which provides water and wastewater services to a number of communities, industrial and non-profit institutions in Kalamazoo County. For instance it already provides sewer service to Parchment.
Any water customers on the Parchment system in Cooper Township would join the other Cooper Township homes already on the regional system as out-city customers.
Any upgrades to the water system would be the responsibility of Parchment.
While it effective remediates the PFAS crisis in the City of Parchment, it does not address the contamination, which remains beneath the area and continues to contaminate private wells in homes in Cooper Township.
Those homes are currently using filters. Finding a mechanism to fund a connection to municipal water is still a work in progress.
