Lakes Area Sewer Authority

The Lakes Area Sewer Authority, through the Cass County Board of Public Works, obtained USDA funding and has constructed a $10.833 million wastewater collection and treatment system project to construct sanitary sewers around the Finch, Fish, Gravel and West Saddlebag Lake areas in Marcellus and Volinia Townships in Cass County and Porter Township in Van Buren County.

The wastewater treatment plant serves the lake areas as well as the Village of Marcellus customers. The collection system is a gravity system with lift stations, while the treatment plant is a 250,000 GPD activated sludge process, expandable to 1.0 MGD. The basin designs permit the receipt of septage, through a septage receiving station and associated headworks/piping/etc., that were constructed as part of the project and paid for with remaining contingency funds.

This project received the 2011 Southwest Michigan Planning Commission “Graham Woodhouse Intergovernmental Effort” Award and the 2011 Local and State American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) “Quality of Life” Award.