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Portrait of Midland Director of Wastewater Services Jared Driscoll.

A before (left) and after sample of water treated at the Midland Wastewater Treatment Plant.

In most municipalities that have a wastewater treatment plant, it tends to be a background amenity and service.

But in Midland, that is not the case.

“Typically, wastewater is (something) nobody really thinks about,” said Director of Wastewater Services Jared Driscoll. “It’s out of sight, out of mind, it's yucky, and people do not want to think about it, even though it is a huge cost and important for the environment. But in Midland, that is the opposite. It has been on the forefront for obvious reasons," he added in reference to problems with sewage backing up into some residents' basements during flooding events.

The city’s wastewater treatment plant, located at 2125 Austin St., is a multi-million-dollar operation that works to clean the water from people’s homes. However, Midland’s geography makes this a unique challenge, even with the city’s smaller population.

While wastewater may conjure images of sewage, Driscoll said 99.8% of what they treat is simply H2O. The wastewater plant treats everything that leaves a building’s toilets, sinks, dishwashers, and other appliances.

The wastewater plant’s budget in previous years sat around $7.5-8.5 million but will balloon in the city’s 2022-23 fiscal budget to $22.5 million, which is 17% percent of the overall budget, said Assistant City Manager Carol Stone. This is almost comparable to Saginaw’s wastewater budget, which is at $24.02 million.

The recent increase to the wastewater plant budget comes from the city’s sewer improvement plan, Concept Five. This roughly $50 million project would increase the sizes of designated sewers, add off-line sanitary sewage storage, and repair structurally defective sewer pipes.

The wastewater plant is an enterprise fund, meaning the bulk of its funding comes from service fees to users, Stone said. Approximately 83% of the funds needed to operate the plant are through charges to the users of the system.

Turning sewage into water fit to return to the river system is a long, multistep process. In simple terms, it starts by removing material such as dirt, sand, sediment, band-aids and eggshells.

After samples are taken, the wastewater goes through multiple steps to remove organic matter. This includes the usage of microorganisms to feed on the nutrients in the wastewater to remove said organic matter, Driscoll said.

This step is mostly chemical-free, only being used at the end of the process, Driscoll said. The plant uses polymer chemical to weigh down and remove any remaining particles, ferric chloride to remove phosphates, and sodium bisulfite to disinfect the water.

Finally, the treated water is rushed out of a storm sewer into the Tittabawassee River, Driscoll said.

“We are taking all the water that is used in the city and we are reclaiming it,” Driscoll said. “Cleaning it to the point that it can meet our national pollution discharge elimination system permit, and then that goes into the Tittabawassee River, which then feeds back into the Saginaw Bay. Eventually, (it) is used as raw water to treat for drinking water. It is all going in circles.”

In total, the plant processes six million gallons of water a day, he said.

The main challenge with running the plant comes from Midland’s flooding problem. Due to the city being in a valley and a 100-year floodplain, large rain events can cause serious floods, like in 1986, 2017, and 2020. Driscoll said the wastewater department is responsible for over 200 miles of storm sewers and 43 pump stations in the city of Midland.

However, all sanitary sewer systems have some degree of inflow and infiltration -- stormwater that has access to the sanitary sewer, Driscoll said. There are a variety of ways clean water can enter the sanitary sewer system, including imperfect manholes and older homes not compliant with current sewer ordinances.

When large rain events occur, like what was seen in 2017 and 2020, the sanitary sewer system gets overwhelmed, causing sanitary water to back up in people's homes through their basements or their toilets.

Back in 1987, the city passed an ordinance requiring new homes with footing drain systems on the base of the house to be connected to the sanitary sewer system, with the goal of separating a house’s sanitary discharge and storm discharge. Part of Concept Five is the Footing Drain Disconnect Program, which will help some homeowners make these disconnections.

Driscoll, who became the city’s wastewater director last summer, said he knew what challenges he had when he took this job during one of the city’s biggest ever wastewater projects.

“There will never be a normal day for me,” Driscoll said. “There will not be one for a long time. I have been told that by the time all this Concept Five work is complete, that it will go back to being a normal utility job, but we will see about that.”

Andrew Mullin is a reporter for the Midland Daily News.