Marquette City Commission approves $14M in capital improvements for Marquette Area Wastewater Treatment Facility

MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) - The Marquette City Commission unanimously approved more than $14 million for capital improvements to the Marquette Area Wastewater Treatment Facility at a meeting on Monday.

The commission accepted a $12,758,234 bid from Miron Construction to perform the work.

The total project is expected to cost $14,064,000. This includes the project’s design, services during construction, construction and bonding.

The city will use $5,857,500 in grant funding, $1,380,000 from the city’s facilities reserve fund and $6,826,000 borrowed through the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Funding (CWSRF) program to pay for the project.

Included in the improvements are adding 180-day on-site biosolids storage units and adding a high-strength waste receiving station.

“We will have the ability to take porta-potty waste and septage,” Marquette Director of Municipal Utilities Mark O’Neill said. “That’s going to be a revenue stream to help pay for this project.”

O’Neill added that these improvements will bring the facility up to Michigan’s legal compliance, which it has not met since 2008.

“We’ve had numerous violations for pH, Dissolved Oxygen and Phosphorous because of it,” O’Neill explained. “So that’s where this project started. It’ll make operating the plant a lot easier.”

A start date for this project has yet to be determined.

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