By James Windell
The South Haven Area Water & Sewer Authority received a progress report about the wastewater expansion feasibility study at its regular meeting on February 26, 2025.
Presented by the firm of Fleis & Vanderbrink, a civil engineering firm serving Michigan and Indiana, the progress report dealt with options for expanding and upgrading the wastewater system overseen by the South Haven Area Water Sewer Authority (SHAWSA).
The feasibility study of the wastewater system has been ongoing and funded by Holtec International, the company that owns the Palisades nuclear plant. Jeff Wingard, one of the presenters for Fleis & Vanderbrink, said that it is hoped that “We can solve a lot of problems with this one project.” He pointed out that besides the city of South Haven and South Haven Charter Township other stakeholders in this project are Cover Township, the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant and Van Buren State Park.
“South Haven already has a regionalized water and wastewater systems,” Dana Burd, Director of Public Works, said after the meeting. “SHAWSA serves around 6,000 customers in the City, South Haven Township, Casco Township and Covert Township, however, the current wastewater system does not extend to Covert, although the water system does.”
Burd explained that SHAWSA has been asked to evaluate the feasibility of providing wastewater collection and treatment to Covert Township, Palisades Power Plant, and Van Buren State Park. “Regionalizing utilities can help consolidate operations, maintenance, regulatory administration, and has other potential advantages in supporting the regional economy,” Burd said.
In a slide presentation, the Fleis & Vanderbrink representatives demonstrated that their wastewater expansion program was divided into three sections that start in Covert Township and proceeds north to the Black River. Each section of the several-mile project was presented with two possible routes and the costs and advantages and disadvantages of each route was shown in the slide program.
Overall, the total cost of the wastewater expansion program would run between $53.4 million and $89.9 million depending on which route SHAWSA chooses. During the meeting, the SHAWSA board discussed the various aspects of the project including how disruptive this long-term project would be to traffic and how it would be funded. It was pointed out by Fleis & Vanderbrink representatives that the South Haven area has an aging infrastructure, some of which was originally built as far back as 1933. Sooner or later, the sewer system will need major upgrades.
This was confirmed by Burd who added that “Much of the infrastructure that’s benefited the community for years is starting to fail. This study not only considered what new infrastructure would be built, but also how much of our older infrastructure would get replaced in the process.”
Discussion of the costs and how the project could be funded indicated that there are state grants that could be available for such a project and that there would also be low interest loans that could be available to SHAWSA. “The engineers will continue preparing an application to Michigan’s State Revolving Fund, which was identified early on as a possible funding source,” Burd said.
Burd said that despite the projected cost of this project it will not be paid for by water or sewer rate increases. “Prior to being involved with this feasibility study, SHAWSA has been implementing a multi-year capital improvement plan to meet the current needs of the existing system and our customers,” he said. “Each year water and sewer rates are evaluated based on that plan. If this project were to continue forward, SHAWSA would work with the other stakeholders to ensure future rates and agreements help meet the current systems needs as well as the needs of the other stakeholders.”
SHAWSA voted to accept the progress report and to move to the next step. Burd said that the stakeholders need to get together and discuss whether the project is financially feasible and whether it would satisfy their needs – “Or, if it’s time to explore other options,” he added.
