Members of the Lorain Sewer Water Advisory Board gave their recommendations for two possible locations for a new water purification plant.
The first location recommended by Lorain Sewer Water Advisory Board is an area south and east of the old plant, 1106 First St., while the second site is in the Kings Woods area, which is located south near West 12th Street off of Leavitt Road.
The area is heavily wooded but is located near residential homes.
The Lorain Sewer Water Advisory Board made the recommendations in a report it approved at its Dec. 15 meeting.
In February 2021, the Lorain Sewer Water Advisory Board was created by ordinance and brings together a group of residents and city officials to discuss the city’s water and sewer operations.
The current water purification plant is approximately 100 years old.
It’s in need of major repairs and city officials have said they’d like to see it moved to help spur lakefront development.
In discussions of a new plant at various public meetings, costs for the project have ranged from $48 million an up.
An earlier study by consultants hired by the city narrowed the list of possible sites for a new water purification plant to four locations.
The Lorain Sewer Water Advisory Board studied that list and recommended which it thought were the two best and put its reasons in the report.
Concerns over moving the plant to the Kings Woods area centered around cost.
Building there would require the mitigation of wetlands, which can be expensive.
But the Lorain Sewer Water Advisory Board report pointed out that the city only would have to mitigate wetlands disturbed by construction, and that area would be smaller than was proposed in an original study.
“Since the new water plant, parking and access roadway will be significantly smaller than the 33 acres that the report says would need to be mitigated, the amount estimated (for mitigation) will also be considerably less,” Patrick A. McGannon, chairman of the Lorain Sewer Water Advisory Board Board wrote in the report.
McGannon also noted that Kings Woods is near a rail line and is located in an area that could be buffered, and thus make it less of a disruption for residents who live near it.
Another benefit of building at Kings Woods, the area would be large enough to accommodate an expansion of the plant should that become necessary.
The area just south of the current plant, McGannon pointed out, would be the least expensive to build on and does move the plant off of the immediate lakefront, opening up the lakefront area for future development.
It also is located on a state highway making it easy to deliver materials.
One drawback of the site just south of the current plant, though, is the size.
“It does not allow for future expansion if expansion becomes necessary and or desirable,” McGannon said.
One other checkmark in favor of building the new plant at the Kings Woods property or the area just south of the current plant: the city would not have to construct a new intake.
The Lorain Sewer Water Advisory Board said the site, known as “baseline,” which is close to the existing plant, is a bad choice because that would involve spending $5.5 million to remove underground structures that existed in a generating plant that once operated on the same property.
The baseline property is where a former Ohio Edison power plant once stood on West Erie Avenue.
The final location, near the current Philip Q. Maiorona Plant, which is located on West Erie Avenue, would be ideal because there are no residential areas near it, according to the Lorain Sewer Water Advisory Board report.
But it also would be prohibitively expensive to build there, too, because it would require the construction of a new water intake.
“Construction of a new water intake would significantly delay the project and raise the cost to the point that would be unsustainable for our customers,” McGannon wrote in the report. “We recommend that this location not be considered due to the increased costs and time frame required.”
The sewer water board also recommended the city use some of the $32 million it received in American Rescue Plan Act money to help pay for the planned-for water purification plant.
“If these funds can be spent on a new water treatment plant, those funds will serve all of the citizens for years to come,” McGannon wrote in the report.
