KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – One thing that became apparent during last week’s Town Hall on Kalamazoo’s big stink is that the City’s Water Reclamation plant is also a source of smelly chemical odors and not just Graphic Packaging International.
City Utility Director James Baker says hydrogen-sulfide is not something they produce, but that it’s a byproduct of the different organic materials that the city treatment plant and the paper recycling plant both process.
26 million gallons of raw sewage pours each day into the treatment plant..
Baker says it’s not just an issue on the north side. New monitors are detecting it everywhere they have a sewer line, but it’s just more focused at the plant.
The City of Kalamazoo has spent $5-million on plant improvements so far and they plan more. Baker says the remedies take research, engineering, time and money to install, and treatment plant improvements are one of the reasons wastewater rates went up 20% this year.
Because this is Public Services Week, anyone who would like to take a tour of the Water Reclamation Plant on Harrison Street can do so at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
(courtesy John McNeill)
The City will also be showing off its Water and Public Works Offices, and its Central Pumping Station on Stockbridge at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday as well.
reporting from John McNeill
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