| The St. Louis water system consists of approximately 35
miles of water main ranging in size from 4 inch to 16 inch. In the Fall of 2015, the City switched from
providing water to its customers from municipal wells to treated water provided
by the Gratiot Area Water Authority (GAWA).
GAWA consists of the Cities of Alma and St. Louis and provides treated
water to both communities from its water treatment plant located in the City of
Alma. Water is supplied to GAWA via six
groundwater wells (three recently constructed with funds provided by the City
of St. Louis and the USEPA) and the Pine River in Alma. An additional well is expected to be
constructed to provide the well capacity St. Louis had in its own municipal
well system. The Federally mandated Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) has
been published annually since 1998. This
testing is performed at the GAWA water treatment plant, the GAWA well fields,
Pine River intake, the Alma distribution system and the St. Louis water
distribution system regularly. The
testing has shown that the water being supplied to our customers is safe and
well within the State and Federal guidelines.
Consumer Confidence Reports are available to all water customers via our
City website as well as found on this webpage.
Copies are also available upon request at City Hall Water system pressure is maintained by two elevated water
storage towers located within the City.
The 500,000-gallon facility was upgraded and painted in 2018 while the
250,000-gallon facility was constructed and put into service in 2016. These two towers allow the City to maintain a
system pressure of between 55-65 psi.
Fire service is provided from over 260 fire hydrants. The average daily water flow for the City in
2018 was 733,761 gallons with a total yearly flow of 267,822,630 gallons.
The City has completed a Water Reliability Plan as well as a
Water Asset Management Plan which both incorporate a 20-year water master
plan. A Water Rate Study was also
prepared as an integral part of the Asset Management Plan. City staff performs annual planning and
budgeting for the needed improvements.
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