Water Treatment Plant Facilities Plan

​The City of Ann Arbor is developing a plan for rehabilitating the City's Water Treatment Plant (WTP). To ensure reliable high-quality water into the future, the city must make significant infrastructure investments.

The purpose of the Water Treatment Plant Facility Plan is to evaluate the operational, maintenance and regulatory needs of the plant both now and into the future. The project includes strategic planning, an alternatives analysis, a small pilot plant used to evaluate new technology, and community engagement throughout. 

For further background, visit the project website. 

Project News

The Ann Arbor Water Treatment Plant (WTP) Facility Plan began in mid-2022. Since then, the team continues to make progress on multiple project tasks. The project includes a strategic plan, an alternatives analysis study, pilot plant testing, and community engagement. For more information about this project, visit the project website. 

Following are completed tasks to date as well as what items will be completed in the future.

  • Strategic Planning has been completed with the city adoption of the Strategic Plan in February 2024. The Strategic Plan is available to view online.  
  • A pilot plant has been constructed at the Water Treatment Plant and became operational in spring 2024. The pilot plant  is where city staff test new technologies, new equipment and treatment methods. At least 12-months of pilot testing is required in the plan. Testing will continue through summer 2025.   
  • City staff continue to work closely with the State of Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) through this process. Together, the city and EGLE have been reviewing pilot plant performance data.
  • WTP Facility Plan planning efforts will continue through summer of 2026. Some of the upcoming efforts include:
    1. Developing a recommendation on the treatment process selection.
    2. Developing conceptual site plan layouts.
    3. Preparing conceptual construction cost estimates.

 

The City of Ann Arbor is creating a plan for rehabilitating the Drinking Water Treatment Plant (WTP). The purpose of this project is to evaluate the WTP's operational, maintenance, and regulatory needs now and into the future. For more information about this project, visit the project website.

In the spirit of Earth Day, we wanted to share how the WTP is looking at ways to prioritize environmental stewardship in the development of the facility plan that guides the development of the WTP site, and how Ann Arbor's water customers can use water in the most sustainable way.

What are some examples of how environmental sustainability is considered in this project?

The Ann Arbor WTP is exploring a potential change in the softening technology used to removed hardness from the source water.

As a part of the Project's Alternatives Analysis, the technical team is exploring changing the current softening process to one that could potentially be more environmentally sustainable. The current softening process uses Quicklime, or calcium oxide, as the main softening chemical. The analysis considers using caustic soda, or sodium hydroxide, with lime and which would have the combined effect of reducing the amount of “sludge" produced during softening. This would be environmentally beneficial because it would reduce energy consumption for sludge processing, reduce truck traffic to haul sludge away from the plant, and reduce waste ultimately disposed to a landfill.

This project will provide necessary, up-to-date infrastructure that runs efficiently, while reusing existing infrastructure where it makes sense to do so without compromising performance or water quality.

The existing water source has served the city for more than 100 years and is expected to continue serving the city for many more years to come. The pipes used to bring the source water to the treatment plant and the pipes used to distribute water across the water system will be maintained.

Instead of outright replacing a treatment unit, opportunities to rehabilitate or modify existing concrete tanks are prioritized. For example, modifications to upgrade the existing filters to continue to remove emerging contaminants are being considered.

How is the Water Treatment Plant working in tandem with the city's A2ZERO initiative?

WTP staff have been working closely with the city's Sustainability Office to identify ways for the plant in general, and the WTP Facility Project more specifically, to contribute to the goals set out in the city's A2ZERO plan. Many of these conversations are in their preliminary phases, but some examples include:

  • Installing renewable energy sources at the WTP, including solar panels.
  • Continually analyzing different systems and avenues for the WTP to reach carbon neutrality.

WTP leadership is also analyzing and understanding the impact climate-based migration could have on operations. Climate migration is a concept that suggests people will move from dryer, hotter areas of the country to places with a more reliable water supply, if climate change causes unmanageable water scarcity. The Great Lakes region is a potential destination for climate migration. The WTP is creating demand projections with this in mind, to be able to continue providing clean and abundant water, even in the event of an increase in the local population.

What can Ann Arbor's water customers do to conserve water?

Drink tap water instead of bottled water.

  • Ann Arbor's water is tested more than 175,000 times each year to make sure it meets public health standards. Bottled water is no safer than Ann Arbor's tap water, and can cost 1000x more than tap water.
  • Ann Arbor's water is locally sourced, and has minimal environmental impact compared to bottled water. Bottled water in the United States alone requires 17.6 million barrels of oil per year (the equivalent of 2,200 full oil trucks) and uses 2.7 million tons of plastic per year globally (the same weight as 90,000 herds of elephants).

Shorten your shower time.

  • Each additional minute in the shower uses about 2.5 gallons of water. Shortening the length of your shower could save thousands of gallons of water each year.

Wait to run the laundry machine and dishwasher until you have a full load.

  • Laundry machines and dishwashers are very water intensive. Running one full load instead of two half loads would save an average of 10 gallons of water each time.

Garden sustainably.

  • Using a water barrel reduces stormwater, reduces demand for treated water, and helps your garden thrive.
  • Choosing drought-resistant plants, especially native plants, can reduce your need to water. Watering with a typical sprinkler using a 5.8-inch garden hose for just one hour uses 1,020 gallons (about 3861.12 L) of water!​​

 

​The Ann Arbor Water Treatment Plant Facility Plan to improve drinking water treatment systems began in mid-2022. The project includes a strategic plan, a study to choose the best technology, and pilot testing of the new technology, with community engagement throughout. Engagement is designed to make sure that the plan's priorities and decisions reflect community priorities, because Ann Arbor residents will be the ones who enjoy and support the plan in the future.

The project's community engagement included an online Citywide survey designed to help shape the strategic plan and technology selection. This survey was also distributed in-person at events throughout the City, where team members talked with the public about the project and heard first-hand public priorities. The results of this survey – and how it impacted the study – are described here.

Survey Findings

The City is committed to incorporating community voices and priorities into the final project recommendations to City Council. A Citywide survey on community priorities is a tool the WTP project team used to accomplish this goal. We identified two opportunities for the public to influence project decisions.

First, the Strategic Plan includes guiding principles, derived from the City's overall mission, vision and goals. The Strategic Planning Team, which includes customers/ratepayers, environmental advocates, and a representative of historically underrepresented communities, validated these principles; the project team wanted to confirm that the community as a whole endorses the guiding principles as well.

Second, the Technical Analysis team is deciding on the best water treatment technology, using social, environmental, quality, and cost factors. Each factor is weighted to reflect its importance. We wanted the community's help in assigning these weights.

The Citywide survey therefore included two core questions. The first asked respondents to organize the guiding principles in priority order, and to write in any missing criteria. The second asked respondents to weight the social, environmental, and quality criteria. The survey resulted in these important findings:

  1. Reliable and safe drinking water are top priority for the community, consistent with the project team's priorities
  2. The project's guiding principles are all important, and they are complete. For more information, visit the project's strategic planning website.
  3. The community believes that having access to drinking water, regardless of ability to pay, is important. The community believes that having consistent water supply is critical

Many respondents wrote in suggestions. Most of these suggestions fell into two categories. Respondents want the City to know that removing contaminants (like PFAS and 1,4-dioxane) is of critical importance. Members of the public should know that the WTP currently has the technology to remove PFAS and other chemicals from Ann Arbor's drinking water. Our award-winning drinking water is free from these contaminants.

And, respondents encouraged the City and WTP to communicate regularly about the project and drinking water in general. The WTP will continue its community engagement efforts for this project and for all its activities. You can meet our team in person at these upcoming events: Dance for Mother Earth, Earth Day, and the Water Treatment Plant Open House on May 6. We'll also be at several food distribution events in April.

Implications for the Project

The survey findings have implications for the Strategic Plan and for choosing the right technology. The project team will recommend action steps for the strategic plan that reflect public priorities based on the survey results. With respect to choosing the best technology, the survey results affirmed the project team's recommendation to pre-screen technologies and exclude those that fail to meet the City's minimum standards for safe drinking water. The City's standards are more strict than State and Federal regulatory requirements. Selection criteria for the technology that makes the cut will be weighted to reflect public priorities. This includes: ensure reliability; aligning with the City's A2Zero carbon neutral goals; and building in flexibility to handle a wider range of water quality conditions, including increasing the proportion of well water.

Equitable Engagement

Hearing diverse voices through an approachable and welcoming process is an important component of the project's community engagement. Although online surveys can reach broad audiences, they require technology, time, and interest to complete. To make sure we captured diverse voices in our survey responses, project team members met people where they are, using events throughout the city, including the Mayor's Green Fair, the Farmers Market, and food distribution events. We brought mobile devices and helped community members complete the survey in real time. These efforts resulted in one of the City's most diverse surveys to date. Part of the project team's charge is to provide recommendations on community engagement for the future, and the team plans to recommend continued attendance at community events to increase equitable engagement in surveys.

We continue to seek out diverse voices through our other project activities. We'll keep meeting people where they are by attending community events. We'll also share information through social media, press releases, the Ann Arbor Water newsletter, and the project and WTP web site. We'll present about the project at public meetings. And we'll invite members of the public to the WTP for tours and open houses.

 

The Ann Arbor Water Treatment Plant Facility Plan began in mid-2022. Since then, the team has made significant progress on the various project tasks. The project includes a strategic plan, an alternatives analysis study, pilot plant testing, and community engagement throughout. For further background about any of these project parts, head on over to the project website. There you will find detailed breakdowns of each component or task, and how they fit into the greater project purpose. The following briefing will give you an update on what progress has been made since the beginning of the project, and what to expect in the near future.

Strategic Planning

The project team used the City's mission, vision, and values as the launching point to develop the strategic plan for the Water Treatment Services Unit. A collaborative approach was used to develop the guiding principles and aspirational goals, with input from City staff, representatives from the major water users, and the community taken into account. The project team is now detailing the metrics or measures of success and starting to write the strategic plan itself.

Alternatives Analysis

 As part of replacement of aging infrastructure, different treatment technologies are being reviewed to soften the water, remove disease-carrying pathogens from the water, and protect against contaminants of concern including PFAS and 1,4-dioxane. The features and benefits of the different treatment technologies are considered when evaluating and comparing the technologies, along with the cost to build and operate them.  The guiding principles and aspirational goals of the strategic plan are also used to develop and evaluate alternatives.

Pilot Plant

Construction activities are now underway! The construction contractor is readying the site for the temporary building that will house the pilot plant, and equipment will start to arrive at site over the next few months. Before water starts flowing through the pilot plant, staff and students from the University  Michigan will start preparing for the operation of the pilot plant and getting ready for testing. Just a reminder that the purpose of pilot testing is to evaluate the performance of a new softening technology being considered for the rehabilitation of the c1930s portion of the water treatment plant used to remove hardness and soften the water.

Community Engagement

The team has administered the first Citywide survey, in which all Ann Arbor residents were invited to participate. The team presented survey results to project decision-makers, who used the results to inform strategic planning decisions. More specifically, survey respondents confirmed the completeness of the project's guiding principles, and helped the team prioritize factors used to evaluate technical alternatives. The team also used survey results to inform a second survey, which is currently under development. The second survey will go live this spring.  The community engagement team is also gearing up for an eventful spring of community events. Please continue monitoring the website; dates of events will be posted as soon as they are finalized.

During the past several months, the City of Ann Arbor has been working on a facility plan to rehabilitate the city's Water Treatment Plant (WTP). The city will be rehabilitating the softening technology some of which dates back to 1938. The WTP Facility Plan purpose is to evaluate the plant's operational, maintenance, and regulatory needs, both now and into the future. The city will continue to provide its reliable, award-winning water throughout this process. For more information, visit the project website.

To help the WTP planning team have full confidence in the recommended technology, the WTP facility plan includes a pilot plant. A pilot plant is a smaller-scale plant that tests water treatment technologies before it is implemented at full-scale. Pilot testing processes include frequent online analytics and in-lab testing to determine if the process is suitable for the ultimate, large-scale plant design as predicted. The source water for the pilot plant is the same that Ann Arbor uses in the full-scale water treatment plant. The pilot plant will be used to test removal of contaminants in our raw water source. Treated water from the pilot plant does not enter the city's drinking water distribution system as this is a test process only.

Why does this project need to use a pilot plant?

Pilot plant testing is important in determining if the selected technology will adequately address current and anticipated water treatment needs. Pilot testing will compare the results of different approaches to soften the water - namely single-stage softening process versus two-stage softening process used by the city at the existing full-scale water treatment plant. Softening removes calcium and magnesium hardness from water. Once pilot testing is complete, WTP staff will decide which technology will be used going forward. To copy or mimic treatment at the full-scale facility, additional treatment steps are included in the pilot plant after softening, including ozonation and filtration. This allows WTP staff to observe if or how the different softening processes affect downstream treatment provided at the plant.  

What will the pilot plant look like?

The pilot plant with be enclosed within a two-story building. The tank used for softening is called a clarifier and has a diameter of 11 feet, and a height of 11 feet. Piping will be built to deliver Huron River water and well water to the softening clarifier. Softened water will be piped to our existing pilot filters and then back to the new enclosure for ozonation.

Where will the pilot plant be located?

This plant is being built within the fence line of the existing water treatment site on Sunset Road.

When will the testing take place?

Pilot plant testing will continue for approximately one year. Construction will begin in February, with testing beginning in May.

What will go into the construction process?

Some construction noise is anticipated, and occasionally trucks will be coming and going from the WTP. The operation of the pilot plant itself will have minimal neighborhood effects. Once pilot testing has been completed, the city will investigate plans for rehabilitation of the full-scale plant. No specific dates have been determined.

Can I visit the pilot plant once the construction is complete?

Yes! The WTP hosts an open house in May each year for National Drinking Water Week. It is also possible to request a  Water Treatment Plant tour for groups of 5-15 people. Please visit the WTP website for more information.

Employees of the Water Treatment Plant (WTP) and their contractors have been hard at work on the Water Treatment Plant Facility Planning project for several months now. To ensure reliable high-quality water into the future, the city must invest in significant infrastructure investments. The purpose of the Water Treatment Plant Facility Plan is to evaluate the operational, maintenance and regulatory needs of the plant both now and into the future. 

The Strategic Planning process is driven by the guiding principles that were established by the City's Executive Leadership Team, which in turn were informed by City Council's priorities for the city as a whole. This alignment ensures that city resources are used for the highest and best purpose. It also ensures that the day-to-day plant operations, including staff members, are working efficiently toward a common purpose.

The completed Strategic Plan will communicate the WTP's priorities and goals clearly. The intention is for the community to feel confident that their drinking water is high quality and that their dollars are being used wisely.

Strategic Plan Process

The project team convened two groups to develop the Strategic Plan. The first is the Executive Leadership Team (ELT). This team is made up of city leaders, such as the City Administrator, the Chief of Staff for Public Services, the Chief Financial Officer, the Water Treatment Unit Manager, and the Communications Director. This group set guiding principles for the overall project to steer the project. The ELT will approve the final plan before it is forwarded to City Council.

The second group is the Strategic Planning team. The Strategic Planning team includes WTP staff members to ensure that operational considerations are reflected, City of Ann Arbor staff members to ensure that the plan is aligned with the city's priorities and broader water systems processes, the city's largest water customers and members of the community to capture community priorities and needs. The Strategic Planning team will define aspirational goals and develop an action plan for delivering these goals. Team members use collaboration tools to come to consensus around the principles, goals, aspirations, and action steps.

Community-Informed Decisions

Community priorities have influenced every step of the strategic planning process. WTP leadership invited community members to participate on the Strategic Planning team. Officials representing water customers in Ann Arbor Township, Scio Township, the City of Ann Arbor, the Ann Arbor Public Schools, and the University of Michigan are full participants on the Strategic Planning Team, with equal voices to city staff members. The team also includes a representative of the City's Equitable Engagement Steering Committee, as well as the City's Director of Organizational Equity, who are charged with considering the needs of historically underrepresented community members. The Huron River Watershed Council represents the health of the WTP's primary water source, the Huron River. These community members join with city representatives to consider big picture questions, such as ensuring access to clean drinking water regardless of an individual's ability to pay, and making sure we are ready for climate change and pollutants and contaminants of concern.

The broader community has a chance to weigh in on the strategic plan's priority-setting and guiding principles through various community engagement activities. The community was invited to respond to a survey to give their opinions on the ELT's guiding principles of trust, community, accountability, and sustainability. The survey was open for two months and was promoted through several community events and media outlets. Feedback also was captured at the Mayor's Green Fair, the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market and the Bryant Community Center, where project team members hosted an information station.

Community perspective is continuously conveyed to the strategic planning team, and influences decision-makers as they work through this process. More community events will take place in early 2023 as the project team identifies opportunities for members of the public to help set the WTP's priorities for the future.

The City of Ann Arbor's Water Treatment Plant Facility Plan efforts continue. In the scope of this project, the city is conducting an evaluation of alternatives to identify the preferred approach to meet the drinking water needs of the community well into the future, as well as constructing a pilot plant to test recommended technologies. During the past few months, project planning efforts have included the following:   

  • Strategic planning and treatment alternative investigations are well underway. Construction will begin on a pilot plant in the coming months.

  • The city is committed to meaningful and accessible community engagement throughout this project, which include: 

    • Community events, listening sessions, surveys, and targeted outreach to major stakeholders and historically underrepresented people.

    • Public information provid​ed throughout the project including a monthly news release, short videos, website updates and more. General information and news from the Water Treatment Plant can be found at www.AnnArborWater.org.

    • Consistent, community-informed, analytical feedback from HRG to the project team on all project activities and deliverables, culminating in a comprehensive community engagement report at the project close.

Back​​​​​groun​​d

The city has contracted with the Huron Ri​ver Group (HRG), a local woman-owned firm, to conduct community engagement for this project. With the help of the Water Treatment Plant (WTP) and the AECOM project team, HRG has developed a detailed plan for engagement known as the Community Engagement Action Plan (CEAP). The CEAP is designed to plan comprehensive engagement efforts throughout the project, including identifying and connecting with key stakeholders. The goal is to incorporate community voices and priorities into the final project recommendations for City Council consideration.

Equitable Enga​​gement

“The city is committed to engaging diverse voices through an approachable and welcoming process," said Glen Wiczorek, Project Manager for the Water Treatment Plant Facility Plan. “Public information for this project will illustrate what is happening with drinking water treatment and why, and how these changes may affect people in the future. The city is providing information not only to inform the public about the project, but also to deepen community members' understanding of Ann Arbor's drinking water system.''

Community stakeholders are encouraged to join in the process as the project team develops its recommendations. Members of the city's Equitable Engagement Steering Committee (EESC) have joined the WTP Strategic Planning Steering Committee to help inform community perspectives and interests. They will serve as a connection to local organizations and community centers, such as Food Gatherers, Bryant Community Center, and the Neutral Zone, as well as key leaders from historically underrepresented communities."

HRG will continue to work with the EESC and community groups to create engagement sessions with community members that include tours to the existing water treatment plant. The priority is to engage in ways that are comfortable and convenient for community members. If you would like the project team to attend an event or meeting, please email info@huronrivergroup.com.

Community Inpu​​t

Project team members not only want to answer questions through public information, but also provide resources to answer questions at local events. Team members attended the Mayor's Green Fair, the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market in October, and will attend additional events throughout the life of the project. HRG has conducted focus groups with multiple groups, such as home brewers and medical providers, with more to come.  A town hall event also will be scheduled later in the planning process.

What project decisions are influenced by​​ the community?

Project activities are continuously monitored to identify policy decisions that should be influenced by public priorities. For example, the project team is using weighted criteria to select the preferred treatment technology. The criteria include environmental, technical, and social factors, weighed against fiscal impacts to create a bottom-line score. The survey asks the public to prioritize these environmental, technical, social, and cost factors, to weight the criteria and inform the recommended technology.

Water rates in Ann Arbor were increased in 2015 to support the cost of this improvement project; whether additional rate increases might be recommended is yet to be determined based on the team's analysis. HRG believes it is important to speak to community organizations that research and advocate for low-income and historically underrepresented groups, instead of solely attempting to connect to these community members themselves. Organizations are able to frame issues with a broader, system-wide lens, leading to policy recommendations that address equity and access issues.

For example, HRG met with the Huron River Watershed Council (HRWC), which is an organization that advocates for the health of the Huron River. The HRWC recommended that the strategic planning team use “Water is a Right" as one of its guiding principles. Additionally, HRG met with researchers from the University of Michigan, who developed a report on the water affordability crisis to understand the impact of rate hikes on low-income people. The UM research team reports that addressing drinking water affordability can be challenging because water bills are often paid by the property owner, who passes along the cost to renters. As a result, low-income tenants may not benefit from programs designed to ensure drinking water affordability. The 2021 U.S. Census reports that in Ann Arbor, more than 23% of residents are in the low-income category, and 55% of housing units are rental. The UM researchers recommended models for innovative programs around utility affordability. Information and recommendations from this meeting were provided to the WTP team. The strategic planning guiding principles reflect the recommendations of relevant local organizations, and the project team is collecting community feedback via an online survey.

The Water Treatment Plant (WTP) Facility Plan is in full swing. For background information on this project, please refer to the project website. In the scope of this project, the city is conducting an evaluation of alternatives to identify the preferred approach to meet the drinking water needs of the community well into the future, as well as constructing a pilot plant to test recommended technologies in the real world.

How​​​ does this affect you, and the rest of Ann Arbor's water customers?

Water quality will not change. The city will continue to provide high-quality drinking water throughout the project and beyond. Each alternative has varying financial, environmental and treatment implications, and a part of this analysis gives you a chance to provide input on what your values are.

A framework t​​o consider futur​e unknowns related to drinking water

Another part of this analysis includes preparing for unforeseen contaminants that may affect the city's water supply. The city — and the project — is taking measures to ensure that upgrades to the treatment plant will prepare the city to manage contaminants they may face in the future. A good example of an unforeseen contaminant is the recent hexavalent chromium spill from Wixom's Tribar Industries over 50 miles upstream of the intake used by the WTP.

The spill sparked an intensive week of strategizing on how this spill would impact the city's water supply. City staff was quickly able to demonstrate that, by using a newly acquired chemical commonly used in water treatment to convert the chromium (VI) into chromium (III), it could remove the chromium in the existing water treatment process. For more information about this spill, refer to the chromium spill update page, or the city's September Water Quality Matters issue. Regarding the WTP Facility Plan Project, the evaluation of alternatives considers the risk of this and other contaminants of concern in terms of their potential occurrence and risk to public health. The evaluation of alternatives will better prepare the city to adequately deal with contaminants like this and others into the future.

Part of the facility plan project is to identify the WTP's preferred long-term approach to prepare for the effects of unforeseen events. This includes:

  • Contaminants that are currently regulated but have not been detected in the city's water supply at levels of concern, such as total chromium.

  • Contaminants that are currently regulated in other jurisdictions, which have not yet been detected in the city's water supply, such as some types of algal toxins or hexavalent chromium.

  • Contaminants that are under review by the EPA to determine future regulatory standards such as some disinfection byproducts.

Supporting decision making for the ​​​future of the WTP

The city is committed to maintaining a safe and affordable water supply into the future, as this project would indicate. As part of the evaluation of alternatives, the city will be using multiple criteria in the decision-making process. These criteria will include:

  • Environmental considerations.

  • Financial considerations.

  • Water quality considerations.

The City of Ann Arbor (City) is beginning a project to create a plan for rehabilitating the City's Water Treatment Plant (WTP). To ensure reliable, high-quality water into the future, the City must invest in significant infrastructure investments. The name of the project is the Water Treatment Plant Facility Plan, and its purpose is to evaluate the operational, maintenance and regulatory needs of the plant both now and into the future. The project includes strategic planning, an alternatives analysis, a small pilot plant used to evaluate new technology, and community engagement throughout.

Backgro​​und

The City provides drinking water to approximately 125,000 people residing in the City of Ann Arbor in addition to Scio and Ann Arbor Townships. The City's drinking water is drawn from both surface and groundwater sources.  The original WTP was constructed in 1938 with expansions in 1949, 1965, and 1975, and treatment improvements in 1996, 2000, 2007, 2013 and 2020. 

To continue to provide reliable, high-quality service​s, the City evaluated a range of alternatives. The City commissioned a Water Treatment Plant Alternatives Evaluation Study in 2015 to look at various alternatives related to source water supply and treatment processes, including a wholesale customer connection to the Great Lakes Water Authority. That study recommended that the City continue with the existing sources of raw water and rehabilitate portions of the City's WTP in lieu of other options.  On September 13, 2021, the City staff held a work session with Council to provide a summary of the 2015 study. The City Council reaffirmed its commitment to investing in local infrastructure.

Recent and On-Going W​​​TP Improvements

There has been significant activity at the WTP in recent years. Some of the projects include:

  • Condition Assessment, Softening and Lime Feed: The 2006 WTP Master Plan included a condition assessment of all the major plant components. Among other things, the plan recommended replacement of the 1938 softening basins with more efficient treatment technology. As recommended by the Master Plan, a new lime feed was completed in 2013, but no basins were replaced.

  • Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS): In recent years, the chemical PFAS has been detected in the Huron River. PFAS are widely used, long-lasting chemicals that break down slowly over time, and cause harmful effects in humans and animals. In 2018 and 2019, the City took steps to address this problem by installing new granular activated carbon (GAC) in its filters and replacing it on a more frequent cycle. The new carbon is designed to be more effective at PFAS removal, and since its installation PFOA and PFOS levels in the City's drinking water have not been detected.

  • In June 2017, the State of Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy (EGLE) notified the City that their drinking water supply contained levels of a microbial pathogen called Cryptosporidium that requires additional treatment to meet the EPA standards. The WTP decided to install an Ultraviolet light Disinfection System to be an additional barrier to protect public health and meet regulations. Construction of the UV system was completed in 2020.

  • In July 2022, there was a spill of  a liquid containing 5% hexavalent chromium into the Wixom sewer system. The Ann Arbor Water Treatment Plant continues to sample its water intake, and has not detected  the pollutant in its water source.  Safety is our number one priority and the City's water remains safe for all uses.  For more information, please visit the City's information page for more on the chromium spill.

Project Overvi​​ew

The City has contracted the firm AECOM to develop a strategic plan, evaluate technical alternatives, and administer design, construction, and operation of a pilot plant. Community engagement throughout this project will be led by the Huron River Group.

The development of the Facility Plan will conclude in about two years, with most of the public participation concluding within the first year. Public engagement efforts will include focus groups, a YouTube video, social media updates, press releases, attendance at community events, a community survey, and more.

The strategic plan will lay out a vision for Ann Arbor's water supply, with input from the community and WTP experts.

“We are excited to be leading this transformative project for the City's water system. Decisions made during this planning effort will position the City's water treatment plant for the next several decades," says Brian Steglitz, Water Treatment Plant Manager.

The pilot plant is a smaller scale water production system used to physically test and validate the proposed treatment changes before detailed design and construction of a full-scale system. The pilot plant will specifically demonstrate whether the proposed treatment changes will reliably meet the City's finished water quality goals.

This project will be followed by separate contractor selection processes for design and construction.

Project Objective​​s

The WTP Facility Plan will consider the needs of the City's water treatment plant, to ensure reliable, high-quality water into the future. More specifically, it will consider the operational, maintenance and regulatory needs and consider the physical layout in a site whose footprint cannot be physically expanded.

The WTP Facility Plan will address regulatory requirements, emerging contaminants, cost, and maintenance of plant operations. The plan will also include a roadmap, including phasing of project components, and a master schedule.

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