What would you do with $30 million?

People dream about what they would do if they won the Powerball lottery. Maybe they would go to Disney World, or buy a mansion, or give to the needy. Me? I would fund our capital improvement program at Avon Lake Municipal Utilities (soon to be known as Avon Lake Regional Water). Well, that is, if I won it in my official capacity. 

This year, Avon Lake Municipal Utilities is planning to initiate $30 million in construction projects in order to better serve you. We are wrapping up the Belmar area combined sewer separation (six months earlier than expected) and the expansion of our water filtration plant we will be starting another combined sewer separation, three new water line replacements, and a water pollution control facility rehabilitation.

Late this spring, the Moorewood area combined sewer separation is scheduled to begin. The project will affect residents on Crestwood and Vinewood from just south of Redwood, Moorewood north of Durell, Parkwood and Beechwood, and Redwood and Elmwood. This means that access to Redwood Elementary will also be affected. As with previous sewer separations, the two-year project will separate storm water from wastewater coming out of homes so that once all residents separate their storm water from their sanitary waste on their own properties, millions of gallons of untreated sewage per year will be prevented from entering Lake Erie during rain events.

During the last few years, the number of water breaks per year in Avon Lake has been reduced by half (from about 75 per year to about 37 per year). This is partly due to operational improvements at the water filtration plant and partly due to replacement of old lines in the distribution system. This year, water lines on Moorewood, Harvey, Yoder, and part of Walker Road will be replaced. Not only will the replacements help reduce the inconveniences associated with water breaks, they will also help improve the fire department’s ability to fight fires both by increasing flow rates and by replacing fire hydrants with ones the fire department can more quickly connect to.

Finally, a major rehabilitation at the water pollution control center will be started this year. The last time part of the plant was updated  was the 1980s, and the aeration blowers (the lungs of the plant) are original equipment from the 1960s. The rehabilitation will help us spend your money more efficiently on operating expenses (the new blowers will be much more energy efficient), will allow us to continue meeting permit limits, and, just as important, improve the quality of the water discharged to Lake Erie.

All told, these projects will cost about $30 million. We are pursuing alternatives to help keep these expenses from greatly impacting rates. However, projects like these are why our rates are gradually increasing each year. In 2013, the average Avon Lake residential customer paid $0.92 per day for water and wastewater service. Assuming the same consumption, that will increase to $0.97 per day in 2014. Though I’m biased, I think that is a heck of a bargain for the water we use for drinking, washing, irrigating, and then cleaning it before sending it back to Lake Erie. Even with these increases, we’re still far less expensive than neighboring water authorities.

Avon Lake Municipal Utilities/Avon Lake Regional Water is your water and wastewater service provider. Questions/comments? Contact us via phone (440-933-6226), email (contact@avonlakewater.org), social media (Facebook/Twitter), or in person (201 Miller Road). You can also learn more by watching our semi-monthly Board Recap Show on ALC-TV’s government channel (TW 12 or Wow! 21) or logging on to avonlake.pegcentral.com to see recap shows or Board meetings. Avon Lake Regional Water: Serving the region. Protecting our resource.