MRWA 14th Annual Golf Outing
Snowsnake Golf Course
Harrison, MI
Registration
Sponsorship Opportunities
MRWA 5th Annual Outdoor Expo & Training
Michigan International Speedway
Brooklyn, MI
August 23, 2012
Look for information Coming Soon!!!
MRWA VIDEO CONTEST WINNER
Rockford High School
Team Members Jenna Severson, Molly Doren, Mitchell Peterson
Sponsoring Teacher, Kris DeYoung Video Production Instructor
Rockford Video
Howard A Wohlscheid owner of Municipal Supply Company Passed Away on April 19, 2012
EPA Funding Update
As you know effective Septembe 30, 2011 MRWA's funding for the Training and Technical Assistance programs and the Source Water Protection program ended due to Congress not funding the programs for FY11. The Training and Technical Assistance program provides technical assistance to systems throughout the state. Specifically, communities are assisted in the areas of federal compliance, contamination prevention and capacity development. Specific items that the Training Specialist can assist with include, but are not limited to: filling out grant and loan applications and applicable forms, development of education materials for groundwater and surface water protection, filling out of applicable forms for federal regulations and mandates, assistance with Consumer Confidence reports and contingency planning and training on implementation and development of source water protection program plans.
The biggest part of this program is that it provided free training sessions across the state to keep systems updated on Safe Drinking Water Act rules and regulations. The training hours are used to comply with state re-certification requirements. This program has provided 20 to 25 free training sessions every year to water operators.
The objectives of the EPA Source Water Protection Program is to assist communities served by public water systems with highly or moderately susceptible drinking water sources to reduce or eliminate the potential risks to drinking water supplies through the development of Source Water Protection Plans. In addition, this individual provides assistance to entities for the implementation of contaminant preventative measures.
MRWA has been working with small systems for over 22 years providing training and technical assistance. We are a non-profit organization that stives to provide the services small and rural communities need in running their systems.
In the FY 12 Congressional budget Congress appropriated $15 million of EPA's budget for training and technical assistance funding for non-profit to assist systems. Congress directed the EPA to prioritize the funding to organizations that are "supported by the majority of small community water systems."
Please help rural water in getting the EPA funded programs back by declaring your support of rural water technical assistance by writing a letter to EPA. Please mail, fax or e-mail the letter to MRWA.
Mail: MRWA, PO Box 960, Harrison, MI 48625
E-Mail: mrwa@mrwa.net
Fax: (989) 539-4055
Sample Support Letter
Congressman Upton Visits Mattawan’s Arsenic/Iron Removal Water Treatment Plant
On Thursday August 18th Congressman Fred Upton toured Mattawan’s Arsenic/Iron Removal Plant which was built because the communities 3 wells had Arsenic levels of 12 to 17 parts per billion which exceeded EPA’s standard of 10 parts per billion. The Village had a couple of options to remedy this and they were to look for a new source for the wells, connect to a neighboring community or install a treatment system. After reviewing all the options it turned out the only option was to build a treatment system that would remove the arsenic and iron out of the system. It was decided that Mattawan would go with an Iron Removal System with Greensand Plus Media that would remove enough Arsenic and this system would allow the flexibility to add Ferric Oxide (Iron) to bond with more of the Arsenic and filtered out to a lower the finished water results if EPA lowered the standards again. This project cost was a total of $3.5 million on community with a population of 2,690.
Congressman Upton spent 45 minutes with Tom Anthony the DPW Superintendent of Mattawan explaining how the system works and seeing what small rural communities have to work through to be able to provide clean safe drinking water to their residents.