|
History
 The first sewage treatment system in
the City was constructed in the early 1930's. This system consisted of a
large septic tank with a submerged outlet into the Grand River. This tank
was located immediately downstream of the Wilson Avenue bridge on the
south bank of the Grand River.
As the City grew in population this system became overloaded and began
to cause serious pollution in the Grand River. It should be noted that
during this time a system of this type was commonplace and the city was
not remiss in installing a more sophisticated system.
As the original treatment system was no longer capable of providing
adequate levels of treatment, a different method of treating the city's
sewage was investigated. In 1964, construction of the first sewage
treatment plant was started in the City of Grandville. This plant was
located near the Grand River between Buck and Rush Creeks at the western
city limits.
The newly constructed cleanwater plant was of the "activated
sludge" type which is a biological treatment plant. This cleanwater
treatment plant as designed to treat 1.6 million gallons of raw sewage
per day and remove approximately 80 percent of influent sewage solids and
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD).
Problems due to septic tank failure in Georgetown Township and the
City of Hudsonville caused both of these government units to be ordered
by the state to provide sewage treatment for their communities. A
subsequent engineering study revealed that it would be cost effective for
the City of Hudsonville and Georgetown Township to connect to the City of
Grandville system. With this addition and coincident with Grandville
population growth it was imperative that the treatment plant be expanded.
In 1971, with the assistance of the Michigan Department of Natural
Resources (MDNR) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(USEPA) funding, the city began construction of a treatment plant
expansion that would provide 100 percent more hydraulic capacity. Also
the plant was redesigned to incorporate provisions for the removal of
phosphorus which was identified by the state as a serious pollutant.
This treatment plant expansion was completed in 1973 and an additional
plant expansion was completed in 1988. The last expansion increased the
plant's treatment capacity to 4.4 million gallons per day.
In 1994 a new pump station was constructed at the plant site to allow
the diversion of sewage to the City of Wyoming. This pump station
increases the total system capacity to approximately 7.4 million gallons
per day.
The plant has undergone periodic equipment updates
with the latest being an Ultraviolet Disinfection System which replaced a
system that used Chlorine Gas. This past year the plant added
additional on-site generation equipment to allow total operation during
times of electrical power loss.
Contact the webmaster by clicking here.
Comments regarding website technical problems can be sent here.
An online community since 2000.
City of Grandville
3195 Wilson Avenue SW
Grandville, MI 49418
(616) 531-3030
This page last modified
07/01/11 .
All information © 2004 Grandville, Michigan
Site Use Policy
Site Design/
Development by
 |
|
Clean Water Treatment Plant
