History of NWUA

In the late 1980s, the Northwest Utilities Authority (NWUA) was formed to collect wastewater flows from Carrollton Township, Kochville Township, Saginaw Charter Township, and the City of Zilwaukee and transfer those flows to the City of Saginaw’s wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Prior to the formation of the NWUA, there was the ZCS wastewater treatment plant located at the north end of the City of Zilwaukee, near I-75, which was constructed in 1972. This facility was abandoned in 1992 after the NWUA force main network was installed to send the communities collected wastewater to the City of Saginaw for treatment. Each community involved has at least one gateway jumpstation, which introduces the wastewater flows from that community to the NQUA common force main network. These gateway jumpstations existed prior to the formation of the NWUA. There are approximately 8.2 miles of force mains in the NQUA system, ranging in size from 8-inch to 36-inch diameter and a variety of pipe materials. There are eight (8) pump stations in the NQUA system, which were all constructed, replaced, or upgraded at different times over the years. The pump stations all have Multitrode Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems installed for remote monitoring and historical trend tracking as part of a Capital Improvement Project in 2011. All the pump stations had modem replacements in 2019, surge suppression unites installed in 2020, and radar level controls installed in 2021.

The NWUA was organized into an Authority under the provisions of Public Act 233 of 1955 as amended. The communities in Saginaw County have a history of forming cooperative authorities to meet the requirements and regulations of unfunded mandates by state and federal governments. The cooperative nature of these authorities has regulated in a significant cost-sharing and saving mechanism for the municipal members. It also shows the state and federal governments the cooperation and cooperative nature of Saginaw communities which assists in obtaining grants and loans to accomplish large projects which a single community would find prohibitive to achieve with their own financial resources.