Backup water supply coming to Huron

HURON — Building a secondary intake pipe represents a primary responsibility for Huron officials. During a recent public meeting, city council members heard a presentation from officials regarding the establishment of a secondary, or backup, water supply source coming online. Plans show crews constructing a pipe from Huron's water plant, off Cleveland Road West, into a deep portion of the Huron River. Huron's water plant today doesn't have a substitute system in place. If an emergency arises, then this would create complications for the city and its 3,400 customers. "The main reason for a secondary intake is to ensure that consumers will always be provided an abundance of safe and potable drinking water," city service director Stu Hamilton said. Hamilton offered up some additional information about this forthcoming initiative: • The problem: "Frazil ice plagues most of the water filtration plants along the coast that use Lake Erie as their raw water source, and Huron is especially vulnerable due to its shallow intake. Frazil ice is often referred to as 'needle ice,' which is the formation of ice crystals in the lake that can block the raw water intake. This obstructs water from Lake Erie from being pumped into the water filtration plant for treatment. The entire filtration process halts and consumers can only rely on reserve drinking water and existing water from the water towers and clear wells which will be in short supply." • The fix: "This is a yearly problem for the city of Huron, and numerous, less expensive measures have been taken at an attempt to remedy this situation. The alternate river intake will offer the water filtration plant the ability to continue providing quality and reliable drinking water should the Lake Erie intake be blocked with frazil ice." • The long-term picture: "River intakes are used at many other water filtration plants in Ohio and are the best defense against needle ice. The protected location, the depth and the moving water all combine to battle any needle ice formation. This project is part of the 10-year capital plan for the water department and was anticipated in the calculations for the recent water rate increase. We not only supply water to our residents but also to residents of Erie County, so continuous and reliable processing is critical." • The timeline: "We released a request for qualifications to allow us to select a partner to help us design and bid this. Once we select the partner, we will move through a design process to allow us to get to a level of detail that would enable us to put the project out to bid. We expect this part of the process to take the rest of the year with construction starting in 2024. We believe construction would be around 12 months." • The cost: "Construction of this project is expected to be around $3 million. On top of that, we would expect design and bidding costs and construction inspection costs which would be in the region of $500,000 combined." • The funding: "Once we understand the accepted bid cost, we would apply for either a (state) low-interest loan/grant combination, (state) loan, Ohio EPA low-interest loan or a combination thereof."