By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
RIVERVIEW – A second study aimed at determining the feasibility of a water treatment and distribution plant for the city independent of Detroit’s water system soon may be under way.
City Council members Monday approved funding for the study, which would look at how the cost of borrowing money to build the plant would impact the water rates charged to users.
Officials previously had collaborated with Trenton and Grosse Ile to share the cost to authorize, fund and engage a supplier to study the cost of jointly building and operating an independent water treatment and distribution plant. Officials say the effort is driven by increasingly higher water rates being charged to each by Detroit.
The three communities now seek to understand how future debt payments could affect residents’ future water rates based on the cost of the proposed new facility.
Of the three vendors who bid on the water rate impact portion of the feasibility study, Bendzinski & Co. of Detroit was selected as the best option. Riverview’s share would be one-third of the estimated $26,200 cost of the study, contingent on buy-in of all three communities’ governing bodies.
The council further proposed limiting the city’s portion for the second study to $8,750.