NOTE: All homes and business
establishments with sewer service are required by Hamburg Township
Ordinance to use potassium chloride in water softeners. Sodium
chloride is prohibited.
E/ONE PRESERVES QUALITY OF
LIFE IN HAMBURG TOWNSHIP, MICHIGAN
Waterfront lots,
open space design, and high water table problemsovercome
with E/One low-pressure-sewer (LPS) system
About Hamburg Township
With a population of approximately 21,000 people , Hamburg Township
is one of Southeast Michigan's fastest growing communities -- a
suburban community with a rural recreational atmosphere, including
a chain of lakes, several basin lakes and the Huron River. Hamburg
Township's central location between the large cities of Lansing,
Ann Arbor, and Detroit provides residents with a convenient commute
to work .
Approximately 10 miles of the 125-mile long Huron River traverse
Hamburg Township connecting the "Chain-of-Lakes," running
through Ore Lake, Strawberry Lake, Gallagher Lake, Whitewood Lake
and Portage and Base Line Lakes. The inland lakes and Huron River
corridor are unique because of their residential attractiveness
and scenic amenities.
The Challenge: Preserving the environment
without breaking the bank
While the Township's exponential growth over the past decade
has brought many changes to the area, Hamburg has worked hard to
preserve the rural beauty and quality of the township. Hamburg
Township has many new award-winning open space design residential
communities that have access to the natural environment often situated
on or near waterfronts. This style of land use preserves the naturally
occurring space within house lots or provides for recreation and
park areas for homeowner use. Providing affordable sewer service
to such developments presents unique challenges. Gravity sewer
systems require the construction of deep trenches, which can be
costly and disruptive to the natural environmental.
Many of the existing waterfront homes in Hamburg Township were
constructed on very small lots converted from old summer cottages
into year-round residences. The original on-site septic systems
that could handle seasonal use proved to be inadequate for year-round
usage. Water from the failing septic systems ends up directly
in surrounding lakes causing water pollution with the eventual
degradation of recreational use and land values. Traditional gravity
sewer systems are not appropriate for small waterfront lots due
to extensive and disruptive construction, lack of space, and high
costs.
Hamburg Township also suffers from very high water tables in many
areas. Gravity sewer systems are very susceptible to ground water
infiltration. The addition of ground water to the system creates
higher operation and maintenance fees for the property owners and
requires increased wastewater treatment capacity.
Hamburg Township needed to find low cost sewer system alternatives
that would preserve their most important quality of life characteristics,
including natural open space designs and waterfront development.
The Solution: E/One LPS Systems
A
group of residents on Ore Lake, the first lake at the beginning
of the chain of lakes, petitioned the township in the 1980’s
for a Sanitary Sewer Special Assessment District. The Special
Assessment District allowed the Township to finance the cost of
the sewers through bond sales. The residents repay the township
over a 20-year period with the assessment being added to the tax
bills.
Hamburg Township entered into an agreement with an engineering
firm for the design of the sanitary sewers for the Ore Lake
residents. The first design was to construct and install
a gravity type sewer system and estimated costs were presented
to the Township and the Ore Lake residents for their review. Upon
review, concern about the high water table and the exorbitant
cost of dewatering, forced officials and residents to request alternative
designs for the sanitary sewer system.
Alternatives were presented and officials chose to install a low-pressure-sewer
(LPS) system, which included a grinder pump station at each home. An
analysis of lifetime costs in similar areas showed that a low-pressure-sewer
system is more cost-effective and less destructive than a gravity
sewer system. Competitive bids were solicited and Environment
One Corp. (E/One), a pioneer in LPS systems since the early
1970’s, was selected as the lowest competitive bid.
How Pumps Work
The heart of the E/One LPS system is the GP 2000 grinder pump,
which can be installed inside or outside the home. The grinder
pump, smaller than a washing machine, grinds wastewater into a
fine slurry and pumps it under pressure in small diameter pipes
directly into a sanitary sewer collection system to be treated
at a wastewater treatment plant.
An LPS system has multiple benefits but cost-effectiveness is
a major advantage. Installation requires only a shallow trench
and small 2- to 4-inch diameter piping. Unlike conventional gravity
central sewers, which use 24-inch pipe and require deep excavation,
the E/One LPS is not destructive to the landscape's natural or
built features and requires less maintenance. Since gravity is
replaced by the power of the pump, sewer systems need not run downhill
nor require large-diameter pipes, deep trenches, multiple booster
stations — or their associated costs.
In addition, the cost of installing an LPS system can be back-end
loaded. The up-front cost does not have to be extended until the
building site is actually sold. The biggest outlay -- perhaps 40-to-50
percent of the cost – can be deferred until a lot is sold.
In some cases land developers using an LPS system have realizedsavings
up to 80-90 percent in up-front costs.
The Results
The E/One LPS system has provided the Hamburg Township with continued
cost savings over other types of sewer systems. LPS sewer lines
are installed using a method called directional boring (or drilling).
A hole is dug at the entrance point of the line and the exit point
of the line. The small diameter sewer line is then pulled underground
eliminating the need to cut large open trenches required for a
gravity system. The contractor does not have the problem of dewatering
trenches either. All of these things add up to an overall cost
savings to both the Township and the property owners.
As Hamburg Township continued to grow, the use of E/One grinder
pump stations and low pressure sanitary sewer collection systems
has helped developers to improve their property while maintaining
the integrity of the land and surrounding bodies of water. The
LPS system eliminates the area needed on lots for large on-site
septic systems required under the Michigan health codes, allowing
residents to utilize more of their property. The relative small
size of the E/One grinder pump station also lends itself well to
the smaller lot size, as it can be located almost anywhere on the
property to serve the home.
In our experience, the E/One grinder pump has provided service
regardless of the size, shape, or contour of the property. Property
owners like the fact that the grinder pump is easily camouflaged
by planting flowers and other landscape plants around the lid providing
a little aesthetic appeal.
The LPS system has allowed development in areas that were previously
unavailable due to topography. The E/One LPS system adapts to almost
any type of terrain, even steep slopes. The grinders can
even pump the wastewater uphill to the sewer collection system,
a feat that is impossible with gravity style sewer systems. And
because LPS piping is a closed system, installed near the surface,
ground water infiltration into the sewer collection system is eliminated,
resulting in lower costs for operation and maintenance.
Hamburg Township has expanded its use of E/One grinder pumps based
on the standard of quality, cost, and the warranty of the equipment.
The Environment One Corporation has continued to work with the
Township to negotiate pricing based upon the large quantities of
grinder pumps purchased on an annual basis by the township. This
in turn reduces the cost of providing sanitary sewer service to
our residents. E/One also provides the Township with a 5-year warranty
from the date of installation for each grinder pump station. The
quality of the equipment, combined with the warranty provides additional
operation and maintenance (O&M) savings, which we can pass
on directly to our customers. The quarterly O&M fee to home
owners has not increased since the Township built the first sewer
district over 15 years ago.
Future plans
At this time 2,100 E/One pumps are in use, representing ten percent
of the population of the Hamburg Township. Property owners around
Rush Lake, Oneida Lake, and the Huron River have recently petitioned
the Township to construct a low pressure sewer system including
installation of E/One grinder pump stations to serve their homes.
Over the next six to nine months the Township will install an additional
300-plus E/One grinder pump stations pushing the total number of
pumps in use to around 2,500.
In addition, planned developments located within Hamburg Township
will add an additional 400-plus E/One grinder pumps over the next
2-3 year period.
As the Hamburg Township continues to grow into the 21 st century,
E/One LPS sewer systems will continue to play a major part in cutting
installation and O&M costs, reducing pollution, and preserving
the natural beauty of Southeast Michigan development.
A
group of residents on Ore Lake, the first lake at the beginning
of the chain of lakes, petitioned the township in the 1980’s
for a Sanitary Sewer Special Assessment District. The Special
Assessment District allowed the Township to finance the cost of
the sewers through bond sales. The residents repay the township
over a 20-year period with the assessment being added to the tax
bills. 
