KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – It’s a big, smelly, wet mess and the city of Kalamazoo is searching for a new, more affordable way to get rid of it.
It’s the bio-solid waste that comes out of the city’s Regional Wastewater Treatment plant.
Utilities director Jim Baker says the cost of trucking the sludge to landfills has nearly quadrupled in recent years.
“In 2019 we were dealing with bio-solid disposal costs of around $4 million per year, those costs are now up to around $15 million per year,” Baker says.
He says 75% of it is water. If they can remove the liquid, it would be cheaper to haul and it would also solve the other big problem they have with the sludge.
“It’s a big generator of odors to have that wet mass at the treatment plant, and to transport it from the treatment plant through our neighborhoods.”
Tonight, Baker will ask commissioners to spend $12.4-million on plans for a new technology that will address those issues and save ratepayers money in the long run.
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