Greetings from the Commissioner
In this Spring issue of the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner's E-Newsletter, I want to once again promote and celebrate the excellent work our staff members do collaboratively with community partners and our business and corporate friends. As you will see below, several staff members had major roles in projects that have achieved award status by our peers. I'm pleased to give recognition to our staff members and partners for the world-class projects that we have worked on together. Enjoy the warm Spring weather!
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We are so proud to learn that the
creation of the North Oakland County Water Authority - NOCWA - has won the
American Public Works Association, Michigan Chapter’s “Project of the Year.”
This award is in the “Governmental Cooperation
Less Than $5 million” category and represents success and praise from our peers across
the state of Michigan. The Authority was formed less
than a year ago in order to join certain communities together to cut costs and increase
efficiencies. NOCWA is made up of
Pontiac, Auburn Hills, Rochester Hills and Orion Township.
The creation of NOCWA provided
significant overall water system benefits including the following:
1.
Community
Collaboration – Sharing of optimum water management practices and better
communication
2.
Economic
Benefit – A New Detroit Water and Sewerage Department contract results in approximately $3.3 million in annual
savings to members; enabling sustainable water rates and enhancing community economic development and
growth.
3.
Enhance
Level of Service – Better management of peak hour demands will result in a pressure increase along the Adams Branch during high water demand
periods. This will directly benefit the
City of Auburn Hills and Orion Township by reducing future capital costs.
4.
Sustainable
Construction – Maximizes the effectiveness of existing Pontiac water storage infrastructure.
5.
System
Reliability – Emergency connection mapping with system pressure aid in
emergency operations among members.
Although the new DWSD rates from revenue
requirements have not yet been finalized, the Pontiac water system itself will save an
estimated $1.8 million this year alone. These funds will then be used to
make much needed repairs and improvements to Pontiac’s infrastructure.
From the beginning of this effort our office has worked diligently toward the
creation and success of this Authority. While many staff worked as a team to make this
happen, special recognition goes to WRC’s Sue Coffey, Jody Caldwell, and Carrie
Cox for their assistance with the creation of the Authority and our pump
maintenance and system control unit staff, specifically Dave Brown and Matt
Carr, for managing the system improvements. The majority of the Pontiac water system
improvements were performed in-house by WRC staff. We are proud of our staff, our efforts, our
success, and our communities.
Two
important WRC projects were recently recognized during the ACEC 2015 awards
ceremony. The projects were the Oakland Macomb Interceptor Drain rehabilitation
project administered by the engineering firm of NTH Consultants and the
Farmington Hills water storage tower project administered by OHM Advisors.
In the OMID project, NTH performed a
sophisticated geophysical study of the Drainage District's tunnel to identify
voids that required the injection of more than 27,000 cubic feet of cement
grout. By utilizing this innovative technology, the team was able to
rehabilitate serious deficiencies before they resulted in failures that could
impact the environment and the system's 800,000 users. WRC Assistant Chief
Engineers Sid Lockhart and Mike McMahon were project managers who oversaw the
project.
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The second
project involved the Farmington Hills Elevated Storage Tank and its complex
network of system control valves which allow the City of Farmington Hills to
effectively manage its peak water demand from the Detroit Water and Sewerage
Department. In addition to improved water pressure, reliability and fire
protection, the City is expected to realize about $3.5 million in annual
savings. Chief Engineer Glenn Appel and Assistant Chief Engineer Tom Maxwell
were the project's managers.
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