A real-time water quality monitoring system launched this week in southeast Michigan.
It stretches between roughly Port Huron and Monroe, along Lake Saint Clair between Lakes Huron and Erie. That’s a heavily industrial corridor on both the U.S. and Canadian sides with chemical plants, oil and gas pipelines, and significant freighter traffic.
Kelly Karll, manager of environment and infrastructure for the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), said the system itself has been in place for about 20 years, but is now upgraded in terms of speed and sensitivity. Water treatment plant operators can now continuously monitor water for signs of potential contamination, such as changes to pH balance.
“And when the parameters get outside of the normal range, then they can make a determination of whether they need to shut down the [drinking water] intake,” said Karll.
The water quality data is also instantly uploaded to the web, so that operators can see real-time data from other treatment plants, Karll said.
The system upgrades and maintenance are funded by a $1.5 million state appropriation that should support it for the next four years, and “the funding is good through 2029,” Karll said. “It will cover purchase of the equipment, installation of the equipment, and then ongoing calibration and maintenance.”
There are 13 water treatment plants along this corridor providing drinking water to around half of Michigan’s population.
