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Brian Sousa, vice president of Wade Trim, gives a presentation at Bear Lake Schools on Wednesday about the proposed sewer system for portions of Bear Lake Township, Onekama Township, Pleasanton Township and the Village of Bear Lake.

Pictured is a system overview map of the proposed sewer system which would serve portions of Bear Lake Township, Onekama Township, Pleasanton Township and the Village of Bear Lake.

MANISTEE COUNTY — The Two Lakes Collaborative Sewer Authority held a pair of meetings recently — one at Onekama Consolidated Schools and one at Bear Lake Schools — to gather questions about the proposed community sewer project serving portions of Bear Lake Township, Onekama Township, Pleasanton Township and the Village of Bear Lake.

"Essentially it's a sewer system around two different lakes: Bear Lake and Portage Lake," said Brian Sousa, vice president of the engineering and planning firm Wade Trim on Wednesday. "What we're doing is collecting the wastewater from the residential homes and some of the businesses that are there. We're going to take that sewage and move it away from the lake and get it out of the area, treat it and dispose of it away from those bodies of water."

Here are five key takeaways from the meetings.

Who would be served by the proposed sewer system?

The system would serve the south and west sides of Portage Lake. Most of the northern shore of Portage Lake is already part of a sewer system.

"What we're trying to do is serve the properties on the water and then the properties on the other side of the road," Sousa said. "We're not serving anything (along the northeast shore). The Village of Onekama already serves that area with municipal sewer and their treatment plant. ... Basically what we're doing is just filling in those holes that aren't served."

Most of the lakeshore properties around Bear Lake would be part of the system.

"The Village of Bear Lake wanted to serve some of the areas. They said to the people in the village, 'Look, we're going to be running sewer through here, do you want to be served?'" Sousa said. "If they got more than 50% of the people on that road that said yes, then they'd serve that road. What we don't want to happen is if one lot down here says I want to be served and nobody else does, we don't really want to put in $200,000 worth of infrastructure to serve one home. ... Those discussions were had back in 2018, 2017. ... This has been going on for a long time."

What does the proposed system cost?

The proposed sewer system would cost an estimated $43 million. The Portage Lake system would cost $18 million, the Bear Lake system would be $17 million and $8 million would be for the wastewater treatment plant and transmission lines.

"That's from now until the last person's connected," Sousa said. "That's for engineering, permitting, building, installation, contingencies and everything that we would need."

How will the sewer authority pay for the system?

The Two Lakes Collaborative Sewer Authority will apply for funds through the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development in order to build the sewer system. Those funds can come in the form of a loan and grant money.

"All $43 million could be under a loan, or that might be in the form of some grant and some loans," Sousa said. "We don't know what that makeup will be yet until we finish the application and get it submitted and they have a chance to look at it and make their determination. It won't be all grants — I can tell you that."

Sousa said the authority will pursue grants from other entities, as well. Any grants the sewer authority receives would reduce the cost to the user. In a worst-case scenario where all $43 million comes in the form of a loan, the cost for a single-family residence would be about $160 per month.

Sousa said based on the median household income of the municipalities in the Two Lakes Collaborative Sewer Authority, the project qualifies for up to 75% funding, although receiving that much is unlikely.

The $160 per month would be broken down into two different costs, with the first coming in the form of a special assessment.

"That's about $80 a month. ... It's about $15,000 special assessment per property — per tax ID. You can spread that cost out over time or you can pay it all at once," Sousa said. "We use that money to pay for the construction. We get a loan from Rural Development, we have to make payments back, just like a mortgage. ... They use the special assessment payments to pay for construction."

A monthly fee of approximately $80 would be charged to users connected to the sewer system.

"Once the system is in and it starts running, we have electrical costs, we've got staff costs to run the system, snow plowing, running around checking the system," Sousa said. "Whatever it is, those are all costs once the system is up and running and there are users. As a user, when you connect you would have a monthly fee to cover the operation and maintenance."

How would the system work?

Sousa said most residential homes on Portage and Bear lakes have an on-site septic system which features a septic tank and a drain field.

The proposed system would see current septic tanks emptied, filled with sand and abandoned. New tanks would be installed and instead of wastewater flowing into a drain field it would be pumped to the transmission lines at the road and then to the wastewater treatment plant.

"(We'd be) getting it off your property, getting it away from the lake, getting it to a place where we can treat it properly and dispose of it properly," he said. "... This is called a STEP system. ... It's an acronym for Septic Tank Effluent Pump."

Sousa said solid waste would still get pumped out of the tank as with a traditional septic system.

"A lot of homes in the area are seasonal. When you have a seasonal system that gets a lot of use in the summertime and sits dormant in the wintertime, we have the solids left in that waste stream," he said. "If that sits dormant, the solids settle out and they kind of settle around the lowest part of the pipe and plug it up."

Having the septic tanks would be included in the operation and maintenance costs of the project.

Sousa said users would likely have two access lids at ground level in their yard — one to service the pump and one to empty the tank.

What type of wastewater treatment plant will be built?

Sousa said the proposed wastewater treatment plant is a mechanical plant.

"That will not be a lagoon system like you used to see with some of the old systems where you have big wastewater ponds and you transfer from one pond to the next — one for clarification, one for finishing — then they usually pump it out to an irrigation field to get rid of it," he said. "... This will be a mechanical plant. Run it through the plant and it gets eaten by the bugs. There's always air injected into it to help the biology break that down. It's treated to a high quality and then we have to dispose of that water."

I was born and raised in Manistee. I earned a bachelor's degree in English from Grand Valley State University. My hobbies include fishing, reading and playing music.