Episode 5_Tales from the UP

Ever wonder what it's like to run a water system in Michigan's Upper Peninsula? This episode takes you straight to the source.

Eric VanLanen grabbed the mic at the UP Institute in Harris, Michigan, and sat down with some of the most experienced water operators in the region. These aren't your typical interviews - they're real conversations with the folks who keep the taps running in some pretty challenging conditions.

You'll meet Bill Anderson from Ishpeming, who's in the middle of replacing nearly 10 miles of water pipe while rolling out technology that can actually alert you when your toilet is running. There's Mark Ornea from Marquette, whose team just won best tasting water in the UP (and he's genuinely shocked about it). Plus Larry Sutling from Bay College, who's been training water operators for decades and has some great stories about his students.

Rob Spreitzer talks about running Gladstone's system with equipment that dates back to the 1930s, and Bob Turvin shares how Ironwood went from losing 70% of their water to leaks down to just 28% - a 30-year transformation that's pretty remarkable.

These conversations happened right on the show floor, so you get the real deal - complete with war stories, close calls, and the kind of practical wisdom that only comes from decades of hands-on experience. If you've ever been curious about what goes into getting clean water to your tap, especially in smaller communities, this episode pulls back the curtain.

It's part history lesson, part technical deep-dive, and part tribute to the people who do this essential work every day. Whether you're in the industry or just interested in how things actually work, you'll come away with a new appreciation for the complexity and dedication behind something we all take for granted.

The Current is the official podcast of the Michigan section of the American Water Works Association.

Transcript

Speaker 1 [00:00:00] Welcome to this special episode of The Current. I'm your Eastside host, Matt Lane. 

Speaker 2 [00:00:04] And I'm your West Side host, Jamie Fleming. 

Speaker 1 [00:00:06] And this episode, we're actually turning over the mic to Eric VanLanen, who was present in the Upper Peninsula for the UP ACE this year. Is that right, Jamie? 

Speaker 2 [00:00:22] It's the UP Institute. 

Speaker 1 [00:00:24] The UP Institute. And he actually stepped in, took over the mic, and did some interviews for The Current. And he did some very interesting work with folks from the UP. We get to hear the things that they're working on and how they do things up north. So Jamie, what are we going to hear in this special episode? 

Speaker 2 [00:00:49] Yeah, this is a great roundup of historical stories going backwards in time a bit at certain points, but also looking forward into the future. A couple of things I really loved was hearing stories about a lot of big projects that are happening above the bridge, and lots of technology that's been in place, but that is being expanded. And there's also a great section about Bay College's Water and Wastewater Technology Program. And that's always a fascinating thing for me to hear about because it focuses on the workforce, which is a passion of mine. 

Speaker 1 [00:01:29] I was excited to hear it, I know you were too, and I hope the listeners out there enjoyed as much as we did. 

Speaker 2 [00:01:35] Agreed. And thanks to everybody who lent their voice to this episode. 

Speaker 1 [00:01:47] Welcome to The Current, the official podcast for the Michigan section of the American Waterworks Association. I'm your eastside host, Matt Lane. 

Speaker 3 [00:01:54] And I'm Jamie Fleming, your host from the West Side. 

Speaker 1 [00:01:57] Join us as we dive into water and wastewater topics from across Michigan. 

Speaker 4 [00:02:04] So I am the guest host today. My name is Eric VanLannen. I cover the UP of Michigan and Northern Wisconsin. I'm a part supplier to contractors and to municipalities. And today I'm sitting with Bill Anderson from the city of Ishpeming. Bill, how long have you been doing what you're doing? 

Speaker 5 [00:02:22] I've been doing this for about 32 years now. I started off at K.I. Sawyer in the wastewater plant, doing that, and then they started doing water and sewer once the Air Force left. 

Speaker 4 [00:02:33] How did you transition to the city of Ishaming? I know you had a stepping stone in here. 

Speaker 5 [00:02:38] So, I started with the air base. I was there for 10 years. Then I went to the city of Nagani and I was a water sewer foreman there for 11 years. We did a lot of I&I and unaccountable water. When I left Nagani, we were down to 8% on our unaccuntable water. And our I& I was pretty much non-noticeable at that time. And then after that, I went into the private sector for five or six years. And I really didn't like that. I like working for municipalities where you're doing stuff for the public, not just making one entity rich. You're doing something for the group. So I've been doing that for Ishburne for three plus years now and absolutely love it. 

Speaker 4 [00:03:21] So you are about to undertake two of the biggest water projects that are going to happen this year in the UP of Michigan. Tell us what you're replacing and what's all going on. 

Speaker 5 [00:03:32] We're doing nine and a half miles of pipe in the drinking water side. Last year, we started nine miles of sewer pipe and we have about a mile left of that to do before we start the water. It's pretty much a lot of the distill the cast and anything that got left from other water projects where you would do a section of road and oh, they ran out of money so they would leave this one section in the ground. So we're getting all of that done. 

Speaker 4 [00:03:59] Perfect, so by the time that this project is done, you guys are gonna have an updated water and wastewater system in Ishpemen. Correct, yep. Let's talk about, you guys installed census meters a few years ago, and you're gonna be the first one in the UP to go ahead with the next step. Explain to folks out here what you're doing next. 

Speaker 5 [00:04:23] So we were the typical community where you read water meters all through the month. So we had, I believe we started out with 15 books and then we got it down to seven. And anytime you do that, unless you're reading everything on the first of the month, when you get your water meter read from your producer, you'll never ever be able to get your unaccountable water and you'll ever ever get your I&I. So you have to do that first. So the city's been trying to do water meters for, I don't know, about eight years I think. Little by little, last summer we had roughly about 1,800 left to go. I made it a challenge for the guys. I was going away for some surgery. And during the surgery, I was off for three months. And during that time, they literally knocked out over 1,200 meters. Perfect. So now we literally have all of our meters done. January 1 of this year, we started reading at the beginning of the month, the beginning the month which was really bad. We knew we had an unaccountable water problem. And it's actually about 57% because now we're actually reading the numbers right so now we have the data to go back to the council and say we need to do this this and this. 

Speaker 4 [00:05:33] So now we're on a hunt for some water leaks and some unaccounted for water. The nine miles of pipe that you're obviously replacing this year is going to pick up a lot of them problems. As you dig, you're going to find water. 

Speaker 5 [00:05:45] And then on the next project, which we just started last week or a week before, is AquaHawk. And that's going to be an app-based program where anybody can monitor their own water. Back to the meters though, we actually went down to the one-gallon meters. Because if you do tens or a hundred, this program really isn't going to work well for you. But being that we're at the one gallon, we can actually see when a toilet flapper is stuck and you're losing a gallon or two an hour, AquaHawke is going to app base. You can set up your own alarms so that if you go over a certain number of gallons a day, it's going to actually beep your phone so we won't have to deal with people that are having like these 18,000 gallon water bills because they weren't monitoring their toilet or stuff like that. You're also going to be able to do billing. It's going eliminate a lot of work for our crews. 

Speaker 4 [00:06:35] Perfect. Bill is modernizing the big city of Ishpeming up here. He's got a new pipe coming in. Who's the engineer that you're working with up there, Bill? 

Speaker 5 [00:06:45] Chris Holmes is doing it out of UPEA and there are other engineers. I mean, Brian Fabry with GEI, I mean it's not just all of a sudden happened. This has been years in the making, but it's getting pushed really hard now because everybody wants to do the housing market thing. Well, we are so stressed on our water and sewer that we can't even have another hotel come into our community until we figure out this problem. 

Speaker 4 [00:07:12] Did you get any funding for the projects that are coming up? 

Speaker 5 [00:07:15] Yeah, there's quite a bit of, there was like half of it was grant, but then we bonded most of it. 

Speaker 4 [00:07:22] Anything memorable that's happened over your career? Um, I can give you one. So I was an operator in the little village of Wasaki in Wisconsin. And in 94, 95, 93, 94, 94 and 95, we had a horrendous winter. Everything was froze up. It was just nasty. I'm thawing out water lines and my fire pager goes off. And I started the village clerk's house on fire with electricity. If you ever want excitement in your community, burn down the clerk's House. She's the one that pays you. It got to be a problem relatively quickly. 

Speaker 5 [00:08:06] The only one that I can think of, we were just talking about it at lunch. We did a lot of main repairs when I worked for Nagani. It was a very hot summer day. I was the guy on the chop saw and the blade actually cut. This was kind of bad, but the blade cut and it came back and it actually hit me right between the eyes, just the plastic part. So I was bleeding there. And one of the guys that was normally not the motherly like to take care of anybody. He's like wiping the blood off and everything. He goes over and he gets band-aids and he puts both band-aid kind of like in an X on my forehead, you know, so it would stop bleeding and everything, didn't think anything of it, worked all day out in the sun and everything go home, take a shower. I got this white X on my for head. 

Speaker 4 [00:08:51] Nice. X marks the spot. That is perfect. Our next system that we're going to talk about today, I was going to say our next victim is Mark Ornea from the city of Marquette. Mark's crew brought in a water taste test sample today and they won best tasting water in the UP of Michigan. So congratulations to you, congratulations to the city and congratulations to the folks over there for winning that award. What kind of system do you run? Where does your water come from? 

Speaker 6 [00:09:33] Well, the city is always Lake Superior. Really, the water is so high quality that we didn't even start filtering it until 1997. It was kind of a long, drawn-out battle with the state over that. They didn't quite see things the way the city elders saw it. 

Speaker 4 [00:09:50] You guys went until 1997 without filtering. 

Speaker 6 [00:09:53] Yes. 

Speaker 4 [00:09:54] That's amazing. That is water quality. 

Speaker 6 [00:09:57] Drinking water requirements other than the filtration aspect of it. The good thing is instead of building like a regular sand filtration plant by holding off like that, we're on the front end of the membrane technology. We were the first microfiltration plant in a cold water environment in the United States. And when we went online, we were the largest up until... Kenosha, Wisconsin came online a little bit later that year. So that allowed us to build a plant that was a much smaller footprint, and it's worked out really well for us. And one of the really good things that happened after we put the filtration plant in in 97, 98, we had a dam break on the Dead River several miles upstream, I don't know, 30-some plus miles. There were two dams, well, one big dam, lower part of that. That one held, thank God. And then a small impoundment in the city of Marquette failed. And there was such a plume of silt that went out into Lake Superior and it went right over our intake. So had we not went ahead and put the filtration plant in, we would have had some serious issues. 

Speaker 4 [00:11:13] Timing is everything. 

Speaker 6 [00:11:14] Yeah, that was really lucky, actually. 

Speaker 4 [00:11:16] You got you lucked out on that one. 

Speaker 6 [00:11:19] I was surprised with the best tasting water. Our city manager, Karen Kovacs, has asked me several times about it and I've always told her because we're a surface water treatment plant that we probably would never get it just because Lake Superior is pretty sterile, doesn't have a lot of minerals in it. It generally seems like what wins it is communities that do have well water, good tasting well water anyways. 

Speaker 4 [00:11:48] Today was your day. 

Speaker 6 [00:11:49] Yeah, I was shocked actually. The first thing I did is took a picture of the guys that brought it in and sent it to her. Nice. So she was pleased. 

Speaker 4 [00:11:55] Again, congratulations on that. Thank you. Customers can be happy that you have the best tasting water in the UP. 

Speaker 6 [00:12:03] Yeah, we'll see what happens on social media on that. Sometimes we get complaints about the water tastes terrible, and then there's people that have been in the city for a long time, and they talk about how great it is. I've been there my whole life, and I think it's wonderful. But if you're on well water and you don't have any chlorine in it, it's going to taste, you're going to notice it. It's just like anything. You go from one community to another community, the first thing you do is if you try the water, it tastes a little off. Some places more so than others. 

Speaker 4 [00:12:32] Absolutely. Yep. Absolutely. So how many do you have any idea, Mark? How many gallons of you guys pump? 

Speaker 6 [00:12:41] You know, when I first started with the city in 1990, we were on average of over three in the summer, three and a half, and now it's down, you know, with water saving devices and raising water rates and such. You know I think right now we're just under two. 

Speaker 4 [00:12:56] Oh no, kidding. 

Speaker 6 [00:12:57] Yeah, and then the summer months, you know, that'll see some uptick depending on, you know, weather, how dry it is and how warm it is. But yeah. 

Speaker 4 [00:13:07] Over the last few years, being in obviously my business, I've quartered a lot of jobs that are up there. You guys have never stopped expanding. You folks have never stopped upgrading, and you folks have never stopped fixing stuff that was. 

Speaker 6 [00:13:23] For infrastructure? Oh no no we did. Basically up until 1980s the city was just expanding and they weren't doing a whole lot of replacing and then they had a catastrophic water main failure, a 16-inch line that went on top of a hill and just basically washed one of the main streets out in the city right downtown and that's when it kind of woke everyone up to that hey our The infrastructure is getting older, we need to start getting more aggressive. So in the early 80s, the city has been, you know, being more aggressive in doing projects. 

Speaker 4 [00:13:58] And so it's a good thing yeah yeah you folks haven't stopped doing projects is what i was saying you guys keep fixing the aging infrastructure it seems like every year every other year you have a project somewhere within the city that's fixing some sort of problem or 

Speaker 6 [00:14:13] Yeah, we did run into a bit of a budget crunch here on the last three years that we haven't really done much other than when we have had to do something. So our CIP program is growing a little bit, but we're hoping now that we've reached a point where we're having the cash reserves built up that we can start paying cash for those projects. And we've been paying off bonds, every year bonds are coming off. So that's putting us in a much better financial state. 

Speaker 4 [00:14:41] Staff do you have roughly in the water side? 

Speaker 6 [00:14:43] Well, I'm responsible for the water filtration plant, the sewage lift stations and the wastewater treatment plant. So then we have our public works director who's responsible for our distribution system, remote tanks, pumping stations, and then the collection system, operation and maintenance of that. And then we an engineering department in house that oversees those as far as long term planning. So the three of us work close together on that. The water plant, we have five. Operators and a chief operator supervisor that's a working operator and that's for 24-7 coverage. And then the distribution system, I think they have, I want to say, with a supervisor, I think there's like five others in that department that are strictly just water-related distribution maintenance. And then we get a year where the freeze-ups happen. We've had several in my career. We'll pull from wherever we have to. Public Works, a waste water plant, all hands on deck. 

Speaker 4 [00:15:55] Anything memorable, that funny that's happened over your career, I can think of, you know, what comes to mind. I was doing one of the most heated jobs in the distribution side. I had to go do shut-offs, and I'm shutting water off and I knocked on the ladies door and I said, be here to shut your water out, you know, just go ahead. Well, I'm out there shutting her water off. She opened up the other door and suck a German shepherd on. So after I got that crap scared out of me, jumping off fence with this large German shepherd, inserting teeth into my thigh, you know, we went back with the police and I went that this is, this is insanity here, but it's, it's it's that one wasn't, you know, a funny one, but it was, you I don't know, it was... A memorable one, I guess, is what I'll tell you. 

Speaker 6 [00:16:53] I really didn't have to do any of that stuff, you know, dealing with angry customers other than when I was an operator at the water treatment plant when I first started out. You know, we're staffed 24-7, so any time after 4 o'clock, we take all the calls for water sewer in the city. So yeah, I was dreaded when the phone rang after hours and, you get an angry customer on there or somebody just really angry that. Snow plow went by at three o'clock in the morning during a snowstorm and woke their baby up screaming and yelling at you that you know I pay your taxes and it's like well no ma'am you don't it's your water rates actually do what 

Speaker 4 [00:17:32] And just so the folks out there know, we're at the UPAWWA show up in Harris, Michigan. And we're, I'm walking in and grabbing operators from around the UP to do this podcast and Mark was nice enough to come in and again, thanks for the, thanks for your time. Congratulations on the. 

Speaker 6 [00:17:53] Don't win today. Yep. 

Speaker 4 [00:17:55] You didn't win by a little bit either, I saw the scorecard you guys won. 

Speaker 6 [00:17:59] That's what I heard. Handily. Like I said, I was surprised, so we'll be bragging on that for a while. 

Speaker 4 [00:18:04] At man you should make sure Facebook gets it's all the people like I'm sure market township water 

Speaker 6 [00:18:08] I'm sure Marquette Township that usually wins or they've won quite a few times to let us know that they weren't here this time. 

Speaker 4 [00:18:15] Yeah, they only didn't win because you won because they weren't here. 

Speaker 6 [00:18:21] They won the whole state last year too, I believe. 

Speaker 4 [00:18:23] King is good. 

Speaker 6 [00:18:25] I'll be talking to John. 

Speaker 4 [00:18:26] But now you can tell them that. 

Speaker 6 [00:18:27] We work closely with them because part of their system, they buy water from us. And we're actually working together right now. They're looking at buying into our system. So, yeah, we work really closely with Marquette Township. 

Speaker 4 [00:18:40] And it seems to be an expanding area up there. It is the city. 

Speaker 6 [00:18:42] It is. The city is pretty much built out. You know, there's not a whole lot of build out left in the city. So that's yeah, everything's migrating to the township. 

Speaker 4 [00:18:54] Well, thanks a lot for coming, Mark. 

Speaker 6 [00:18:55] Alright, well, thanks for having me. 

Speaker 4 [00:19:02] And our next victim is Larry Sutling with Bay College in Escanaba. Gladstone. Escanab. Larry is an instructor there for the Water and Wastewater Program. Why don't you explain to us, Larry, a little bit about the program that you guys run up there and how many students you got coming through. 

Speaker 7 [00:19:25] Well, the Bay College program has been around since about 1970. The program was initiated by an individual, I think his last name was Mackie, back then. And there was a need for a lot of individuals starting into the water and wastewater programs or wastewater industry. The rules started changing, so Bay came on board. Once that program started in 1970, it's been going continuously now for 53 years. We've had numerous instructors that come through. Otto Green is one of the old-time instructors, who was a superintendent down in Saginaw area, I believe. Barb Hauser, who came on board. Barb was an instructor for over 20 years at Bay College. Troy Gallagher came on-board. Troy worked there for a while before he went on doing his own individual business. Corey Larson was a next instructor, and I've been working with Corey for like three, four years, and then... Corey left the program, Troy came back, and I've been working with Troy since then, okay? I've be around the water industry now. I'm a 1994 grad at Bay College. I was an adult learner. I changed my career path in the middle of being in my 20s, not knowing which path I wanted to go. So I chose water and wastewater. And it's been a pretty lucrative career for me over the last 30 some odd years. And I worked operations. I've worked industrial operations. Special projects with some chemical companies and then I was hired on as a teaching assistant, worked in my adjunct, took over the program for about a year and a half when there was some transition going on and back to do an adjunctive learning assistant for the students on campus and online. 

Speaker 4 [00:21:11] I know we've got, I've worked with some of your former students, I sell to some of your former student and the education level that comes out with the Bay students, they're so far ahead of anybody else when they hit the job market, they are sought after. I'm assuming in today's market you have no problem finding spots for your students to apply. 

Speaker 7 [00:21:36] No, we usually, students usually, once they do their co-op, a four-week co-open of water and wastewater plant, they're hireable and a lot of the facilities that they do co-ops at may initially hire them on the spot. Most of our students now are actually heading downstate to the larger municipal operations. Grand Rapids is a big area for us. But students are well versed. In water, wastewater operations, laboratory chemistries, both water and wastewater. We do mechanical maintenance courses. And almost everything that we've done over the years has been face-to-face. We've been going transition to the online portion right now, but I think that the hands-on applications on campus is more valuable, and along with the co-op opportunities that they have at various municipalities. 

Speaker 4 [00:22:29] Perfect. Are you seeing fewer students come into you for the face-to-face classes, and you're transitioning more to the computer-based, or how is this working for you? 

Speaker 7 [00:22:45] You know, since COVID, things have changed a little bit. We didn't, we had on-campus classes, but now with online learning really being big throughout the country, we are transitioning to online. Most of our courses are now offered on- campus, or actually online courses. We do a lot of laboratory on campus, with the water and wastewater labs, microbiology. Another of our adjuncts, Corey Barr, teach that. Mechanical maintenance is on campus, but most of the material is going to be taught online now, which is a work in progress. We're really improving upon that, but it allows students who are working outside the area, who don't have the availability to travel, who have families who are already actually working in the field, to gain some valuable experience with a program like ours to keep continuing to boost their knowledge base and their career path. Keep moving up the chain of command that way. Perfect. 

Speaker 4 [00:23:39] Any students that really stick out in your mind that hold maybe not such a smart move in one of the classes or 

Speaker 7 [00:23:48] Yeah, I had a group right after the Gulf War started necessarily winding down that I had a group of veterans from the U.S. Army come in, and that was a very challenging time. The stories they told and the experiences they went through, and they were not afraid to tell the stories to students and young individuals, and the biggest thing that we We got out of that, man. Is working in an opportunity to build your skill set, your knowledge base, how you train, how you to train your mind, your body to focus on a task at hand. I think I learned a lot from those guys. I'm still a friend of a lot of those guys that served. But the young people really took it to heart that they're worth ethic, that it was the biggest thing that I've seen. They were very, very motivated individuals and they are now very successful in the field throughout the Midwest. 

Speaker 4 [00:24:49] Well, thanks for coming in and talking with us. And Corey Barr is going to be one of our victims here shortly. I mean, next contestants, however, we want to look at it. Right. But we're going to go in and get a couple other people and we're gonna come back. 

Speaker 7 [00:25:02] This program has been been around a long time and it continues to build. You know one big thing I do want to touch on for for the for the individuals listening that we are starting to look at going into this CBE which is competency based education which I think is going to be a big thing for the college and for individuals in the field where they can work from from home or in the operation at their own at their on pace get credit for skills they've already have and keep building that that and to get some kind of certification and. Diploma or degree. 

Speaker 4 [00:25:33] Perfect. If you folks have any questions, get a hold of Larry and Bay College and we can get you signed up. 

Speaker 7 [00:25:41] Appreciate the time. Thank you. 

Speaker 4 [00:25:43] Thanks, Larry. So our next victim here is Rob Spreitzer with the city of Gladstone, also known as Happy Rock. Rob, Rob has been with the City for how long? 

Speaker 8 [00:25:59] I think about 29 years, going on 29 years. 

Speaker 4 [00:26:02] Okay, where were you before that? 

Speaker 8 [00:26:04] I was in Menominee for almost two. Prior to that, I was down in Tawas City. I worked for a private contractor in both Tawwas City and Menomonee, same contractor. 

Speaker 4 [00:26:22] So explain to the folks out here what your system consists of. Where do you get the water from? 

Speaker 8 [00:26:29] Our system consists of an intake that pulls water in from Little Bay to Nock, which is located on the north end of Green Bay on Lake Michigan. The water comes into a plant that's rated at about 2 MGD. The water undergoes coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, and clarifiers. Fluoride is added. Chlorine's added and then the water is filtered through a sand filter with a granular activated carbon cap. Prior to filtration we had a non-ionic polymer as a filtering aid. Once the water leaves the filter it's chlorinated and sent to our clear well and actually prior to that we had an orthophosphate for Corrosion control The water then goes to a half million gallon clear well where it's pumped out of to a buried elevated million gallon storage reservoir. At that storage reservoir, it's pump to a, there's a booster station there that takes water to a 200,000 gallon elevated storage tank. So that would be two pressure districts in our system, one working off the tower and the booster station and the other working off of the reservoir and the planned Clearwall for a total of about 1.7 million gallons in storage with about around 40 miles of water main, mostly Dr. Olin cast 

Speaker 4 [00:28:20] How big is your staff, Rob? 

Speaker 8 [00:28:22] Currently, myself and two operators, however, we do have a DPW that will dig for us and provide labor when we need to do distribution work. And we also have a wastewater crew of four people that will also help us when we need help on projects or breaks, things that come up. 

Speaker 4 [00:28:52] Any big projects coming up in the foreseeable future. I think wastewater just went. 

Speaker 8 [00:28:56] Wastewater dead right now. We're waiting on funding. We were trying to get some USDA funding to do a Replacement of our intake and crib structure The newest portion of our Intake is on shore. I believe that was put in in the 30s The intake itself running under the lake is made out of wood. That's original plant equipment that goes to a pretty much non-existent crib structure at this point. So that's how we're trying to get money for that. Also we're going to get a second transmission main, which would be the main going to that million gallon reservoir. That was put in I think around 33 or 35 somewhere. It was a WPA project getting that main up to the reservoir. That was also a WPA project. 

Speaker 4 [00:29:55] Well, thank you, Rob, for coming in and talking with us today. 

Speaker 8 [00:29:59] True stories from distribution. 

Speaker 4 [00:30:02] True stories from distribution. Nice. 

Speaker 8 [00:30:05] Got other ones for another podcast, but distribution after dark. 

Speaker 4 [00:30:12] That's right, all right 

Speaker 8 [00:30:13] All right, well, thank you for having me, I'm out of here. 

Speaker 4 [00:30:25] So the next victim, I mean, volunteer is Mr. Bob Turvin in from the big city, ironwood, Michigan on the west end. 

Speaker 9 [00:30:35] West End U.P. Central Time Zone. 

Speaker 4 [00:30:38] Yes, absolutely. How long have you been with the city? 

Speaker 9 [00:30:44] I'm in my 32nd year, started in 1994 during the deep freeze from 93, 94. 

Speaker 4 [00:30:51] To just start in the utility or to just start in a position that you're in. 

Speaker 9 [00:30:55] Actually, I was working for a Fortune 500 company and the Ironwood called me up and they said, we like what you do. We want to talk to you. I had Monday off, they came in Ironwood, dropped off a thank you letter for the interview. And before I left town, I got a phone call and he said, we want to hire you. Nice. Never applied for the job. 

Speaker 4 [00:31:13] Here you are. 

Speaker 9 [00:31:14] With no water background. 

Speaker 4 [00:31:16] But now you've got lots of experience. 

Speaker 9 [00:31:18] That's a scary thing. 

Speaker 4 [00:31:19] Absolutely. So you folks are going through a lot of upgrades there. You've got some water pipe going in, you've got a lot of projects going on. Tell the folks a little bit about the water plant that you just 

Speaker 9 [00:31:33] Let's start out going back to 94. Sure. So from 94 to 2000, those six years we had two water plant improvements. 1923 plant, drilled five new wells. We have a well field three miles away. We drilled, we have three more wells there and we had them two generators, new SCADA system. The 1923 SCADA System, the guys use binoculars. And saw the water towers and depending what lights were on in 1923, they knew how many high lift pumps to put on. Okay, so then we were pumping out 2.2 million gallons of water a day, we're using three high lift bumps. And then we had a 70% water loss. And then over the next 20 years, we had seven major water system improvements. We were always told, fix your leaks before you build your pump station. So we- And I'll change 26 miles of Maine, cut the water loss down to 40%, and designed a $2 million water plant. But we have iron and manganese issues, so we added iron and meganese removal. So then the bids came in, well, we were thinking it was gonna come in about eight million, and the first bid came in at 14 million. And we said, oh boy, let's do this in two phases. So we put it out, phase one, a working water plant, so we can take the 1923 plant offline. Phase two, let's have our intermanganese removal. The phase one bid came in at 11 million, and the phase two bid came into 11 million. So the eight million dollar plant ended up being a 22 million dollar plan. Oh boy. So we're putting the, as we speak like this week, I think we're finally putting the new water plant online, so we're gonna have a working pump station, and the contractors over there are actually pouring walls. For the filtration for iron and manganese removal. And then we hope to have that online by February next year. That's when I'm gonna retire. 

Speaker 4 [00:33:38] So you're hoping to have it completed by the time you're... 

Speaker 9 [00:33:42] Oh, yeah. 

Speaker 4 [00:33:42] Yeah. 

Speaker 9 [00:33:43] At the same time, we're doing a $32 million wastewater plant. 

Speaker 4 [00:33:46] You guys aren't stolen. 

Speaker 9 [00:33:47] No, no, no. It's like 26 miles of water pipe, 25 miles of sewer pipe, and then when we started changing the water service lines, the galvanized lines, our water loss was 40%. And I'm excited at that because it was 66 to 70%. 40%. Now when we start replacing these lines, we're down to about 28%. And we're pumping out 550,000 gallons of water a day. When When he started, it was 2.2 million. 

Speaker 4 [00:34:16] Oh, you've come a long- 

Speaker 9 [00:34:17] We've come a long way, you know, and we still we still have undersized lines in town We're doing 11 million dollar project But once this is done, we're gonna have a mile of undersized and lines left in ironwood One or two inch lines with limited fire protection, but I mean that was Half the tone when I started we had 270 defective hydrants and now we're down to 15 out of 500 something So yeah, we've it was a lot of pieces of the puzzle over 30 years and We've been blessed. At first, we were getting a lot of sewer grant, but now we're getting a water grant. And over 30 years, you see that grant money come and go. So we're hearing it's going to disappear, but I've been running long enough where we're going to see it coming back, too, so. 

Speaker 4 [00:35:03] Perfect. How many employees do you have today, Bob, in the water? 

Speaker 9 [00:35:09] Oh, in the water side, five. I guess if you count the whole DPW, 12. 

Speaker 4 [00:35:15] OK. 

Speaker 9 [00:35:16] You know, we had 55 guys when I started. 

Speaker 4 [00:35:18] Now you're running the city with 12. 

Speaker 9 [00:35:20] 65 miles of Maine, because it was built for a system of 15,000 people and, you know, the population got less, but the area didn't get smaller. I mean, we still had 65 miles a Maine. And then, you, know, three guys retired and it's like, well, let's, the insurance rates go up, let don't hire, you now, certain things were happening and we're down to 13 guys, 12, 13 guys. And before the water and sewer guys didn't plow snow. But now everybody plows snow. It's one of those things where we're like everybody else. So then my big issue was let's get everybody licensed. Have them go to water classes, take exams, get everybody license. I always learned from the old guys, well now I am an old guy. I got everything memorized and I used to laugh when everybody else did. I could tell people, you know, the curb stops underneath that lilac bush there, you know? I mean, why do I know that? It's like I've been in just what everybody's basement wants. And I'm a pencil pusher. I sit in the office. 

Speaker 4 [00:36:24] But you're not a typical 

Speaker 9 [00:36:26] No, no, no. Yeah, the big thing was, I was telling the bosses, I don't think they understood everything that I did. And I said, I got my water licenses in 96, and that was the best thing I ever did. Somebody came in and, why is my water dirty? I can tell them why, or I could tell them what the improvements are. And then it drives the people in the office nuts when somebody says, why's my water bill so high? And I'll say, well, let me tell you why. And I will go back 30 years, and I'll tell them how bad the system was and all the improvements. And then they kind of get bored and then they don't want to argue by why their water bill's high anymore. Then they stop. Yeah, it drives the office staff nuts because they kind know the whole story. 

Speaker 4 [00:37:07] Right. What is in your future when you retire? What's your plan? 

Speaker 9 [00:37:14] I got to listen to my wife. I don't know, she retired from teaching last year, she's retired this year. My daughter was supposed to get married to Marquette, but everything was full, so now she's getting married to Marqette next year, but my wife's gonna be waiting for me next year in next February. She wants to travel, and we're able to do that, and we have some trips planned this fall, and we are gonna go to the big house in September. I didn't tell her we had end zone seats in the first row, but we'll be there. 

Speaker 4 [00:37:43] And for the people that don't know, Bob flies a cowboy flag. 

Speaker 9 [00:37:48] Yeah, yeah, I have to. 

Speaker 4 [00:37:50] He's a proud Cowboy fan lost in the UP. 

Speaker 9 [00:37:53] Well, they haven't done anything since my kids were born, so I blame them. 

Speaker 4 [00:37:56] Nice, nice. Any favorite memories, Bob, in the last 30 years in the utility? Anything that stands out? 

Speaker 9 [00:38:05] Oh boy, I mean... It's been a long road. I mean, there was a lot of good days, but there were a couple different episodes in the 90s and not too many years ago, there were people outside upset about dirty water and stuff. But, you know, I joined the fire department for 29 years and just, you know, didn't live in Ironwood, but I raised a family and stuff like that. And, you know what, I worked with a lot good people, you know, and I think that's why it kept me going to work every day. 

Speaker 4 [00:38:36] That's a good thing. Um, do you recommend, what do you recommend for somebody that wants to come into the utility work right now? Do you recommend them, you know, going on and get water license, wastewater license or? 

Speaker 9 [00:38:51] That's a good question. I mean, my kid, when he was in high school, he actually wanted to be a state trooper. And then he went on the state police academy for a senior year and did this. And, and then things changed, you know, people recording stuff. And he said, I don't know if I want to get into that. He's actually a licensed wastewater plant operator right now. 

Speaker 4 [00:39:08] Oh, really? 

Speaker 9 [00:39:09] Yeah, and I told him, I said, that's job security. I mean, our wastewater plan in five years, everybody above him is gonna be retired. And then, you know, he's a working in the lab, working on his licenses, but it's job-security. You know, I mean we offer in Ironwood for each license level, an increase in pay and stuff, and you got a benefit package, and you get health insurance, and you don't get that everywhere. And sometimes there's long days. I mean... Back in the day, we had 70 breaks a year. The guys are working. One Christmas Eve, they were working, fixed a leak. Actually, the leak broke three times. You know, Santa Claus saw him, drunken Santa Claus, saw him 9.30 at night. I remember, it was my buddy, Kurt. He says, oh, drunken, Santa Clause came over on Christmas Eve. But, you know, I mean, those are long days, but with all of our system improvements, we're not getting those breaks anymore. All the water lines can be copper and stuff. And it's not an easy job. I mean it's a... But I mean, the health care and the benefits and, you know, that's the big thing, you know, with the uncertainty right now, I mean you don't get that everywhere. 

Speaker 4 [00:40:17] No, we've got job security in this line of work. 

Speaker 9 [00:40:20] Oh yeah, yeah, I mean, I couldn't tell you how many times I got letters from other communities in Michigan. It'd be Detroit or it'd be Saginaw or Bay City or Kalamazoo or Grand Rapids and they'll say you got a D1 or S1 license. We want to talk to you and I'll ask my wife if you want to move down state and she says, well, no, not really, but it's kind of like your golden ticket. If you have those licenses, people are interested because, you know, some of the people don't want to take the classes and get those licenses. You're gonna be able to work anywhere in this industry, water or sewer, if you can get those licenses. 

Speaker 4 [00:40:55] Perfect. Yeah, I agree, Bob, but the license is your ticket to your future. Yeah. And the young folks that are out there, if you can get your licenses, it only helps you and you never know where you're going to end up or who's going to come knocking on your door to exactly to run something new. 

Speaker 9 [00:41:12] I mean, our neighbor is Hurley, Wisconsin, and some of the smaller communities right next door, they can't keep operators. And some of guys from Hurley are actually taking the sampling in those other communities for side jobs. 

Speaker 4 [00:41:26] No, it's because they can't get the people. 

Speaker 9 [00:41:28] And it's something like 40% of the people on water and sewer, they're going to be retired in five years. 

Speaker 4 [00:41:35] At the show that we were at last week, you know, we looked around the show and our age of folks were on the top end of our, we're on the end of our careers. And what we didn't see is we didn't see a lot of 20 girls in there with us. And that's, that's concerning to me, because I'm hoping that the young kids will take an active look at this as a career. 

Speaker 9 [00:41:59] No, Paul Anderson, my city manager, came down to the Michigan Rural Water Conference in Traverse City. I think he was surprised that I knew everybody. But I mean, it's all of us old guys are there and we've been going there for 30 years. I mean it's like a big family, but we're all retiring and there's not too many young guys over there. 

Speaker 4 [00:42:22] It'll be interesting to see what happens over the course of the next 10. 

Speaker 9 [00:42:24] I know, I know. I just feel good that when I'm leaving the city of Ironwood, not to say it's completely new, but it's totally different from when I started. There's not too many of these little mystery lines anymore. It's like, where did this one inch line come from and what's it connected to? I mean, all these are eliminated. We have better fire protection now. We lowered the fire rating from a six to a four. We think after we get the filtration plant online and after this next water system, we want to lower it to a three or a two, which lowers your insurance. And at the same time, the streets are getting done. You know, it's not a street job, but you gotta re-blackout the streets. 

Speaker 4 [00:43:02] In the streets. 

Speaker 9 [00:43:03] So I mean, I get, you know, a lot of people saying, hey, great job. And I got other people grumbling, say, oh, he doesn't know what he's doing. But when you take a look at the picture now from 30 years ago, it's totally different. 

Speaker 4 [00:43:16] It's done nothing. Yeah, yeah Well, perfect Bob. Thanks for coming. Thanks. We're being a presenter in there for us Oh, I just got done talking about lead and copper line replacement. He's going through a large program in ironwood Again, thank you for coming in, Bob, and thanks for giving us some of your time. 

Speaker 9 [00:43:36] All right, you're welcome, anytime. 

Speaker 4 [00:43:38] Thanks, bud. 

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