December 14, 2004 Holland BPW Investigates Cooperative Effort With City of Wyoming Water System Holland's BPW has announced it is exploring a cooperative endeavor with the city of Wyoming that has the potential to eliminate Holland's interest in building a water treatment plant in Saugatuck Dunes State Park. The BPW board has hired an engineering firm to investigate options for building two new water mains, one beneath Lake Macatawa which would connect, via another new main, to lines from the city of Wyoming's water treatment plant at New Holland Street, north of Holland. There are currently two mains running under the lake, one of which lies near the River Avenue bridge over Black River. The bridge is slated for replacement with preparatory construction scheduled to begin in June of 2005. Concerns about reliability of the main at the bridge crossing during construction have prompted the BPW to examine this new option. Total cost of the project is estimated to run about $10 million. Reliability is the primary driver but the ultimate affect would be to secure a substantial boost in Holland BPW's water supply capacity. "These two options look brighter to us, rather than the southern option with Laketown Township," said John Van Uffelen, the BPW's director of water and wastewater, in a Holland Sentinel interview. "But that is still on the table." It's unclear what affect this might have on Laketown Township's ongoing interest in building a water treatment facility in the park. The DNR previously stated it would consider only a joint proposal from Laketown Township and Holland BPW. This decision was primarily concerned with the DNR's unwillingness to consider competing plans, however, so Laketown could still pursue their interest in the park location, just a they were doing before Holland entered the scene. BPW board Chairwoman Maryam Komejan thinks "this is an excellent idea." So do we! The complete story is available in the Sentinel's archives Return to Concerned Citizens for Saugatuck Dunes State Park Resources & Reference page. www.SaugatuckDunes.org