Our Water’s Journey
It’s easy to take for granted that when the kitchen faucet is turned on, fresh water comes out. But have you ever wondered where that water comes from or what it goes through before it gets to your house? Let’s start at the beginning with the raw (untreated) water source.
Source Water – Lake Huron
For decades Bay County’s water was 
sourced directly from the Saginaw Bay. The quality of this source water was sensitive to weather conditions of the Bay and was directly influenced by the Saginaw River. These variable conditions often created swings in water quality that made it challenging to treat. In August of 2015, this all changed when the Bay City Metropolitan Water Plant was retired and the Bay Area Water Treatment Plant went online. The new water plant was designed to source its water from Saginaw Midland Municipal Water Supply Corporation (SMMWSC) raw water transmission system.
Saginaw Midland Municipal Water Supply Corporation
SMMWSC pulls water from Lake Huron near Au Gres at Whitestone Point. The Whitestone facility pumps raw water south to Bay, Midland, and Saginaw counties. Part of this pumping process includes chlorinating their intake structures for aquatic control. The pumping process is no small undertaking and the journey is about 50 miles to the Bay Area Water Treatment Plant for filtration.
The location of the intake (where water is pulled from) was chosen because of the high-quality water normally found there. The raw water system and pipeline is owned by the cities of Saginaw and Midland. Prior to the pipeline, both cities were getting their water from rivers and wells. Quality wasn’t great, so they decided to work together on a solution. Water began flowing in 1948 and has continued now for almost 80 years.
SMMWSC’s raw water transmission system also supplies many smaller communities on its journey south. AuGres, Sims-Whitney, Omer, Standish, and the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe are all wholesale customers. When the Bay Area Water Treatment Plant went online, it become the largest wholesale customer on the system.