KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Getting rid of the odor that has lingered in the Northside neighborhood is not going to be a simple task and according to city officials, it won't be cheap either.
Since April, the city of Kalamazoo has talked about providing a new wastewater pipeline for Graphic Packaging International (GPI), claiming that old pipes are the reason for the odor in the neighborhood.
"We have to do what's called dewatering of the trench to make it safe for crews to work in the trench and for crews to assemble that pipeline in the trench," said James Baker, public services director and city engineer.
In July, the city commission approved a change order to support the dewatering process. Baker told FOX 17 that the water getting pumped from the ground for dewatering has to be treated because levels of PFAS and mercury are higher than permitted.
"We have to rent a treatment unit to come out, and it will go through on-site treatment, which is essentially pre-treatment, to get those PFAs and the mercury levels within a treatable range," he said.
It will be an additional $1 million tacked on to the original $2 million cost. The agreement between the city and GPI will replace pipes with a smooth flow design with gentle transitions.
"This project is going to do a great job to help reduce odors, and we're going to continue to march toward that," Baker said.
The pipeline project is set to be done by December, but this is not the last odor-mitigation project for the city. Baker told FOX 17 they've only reached 89% odor reduction, so there's still work to be done.
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