The Township hereby determines that the Public Sewer System is immediately necessary to protect and preserve the public health, safety, and welfare of the Township. This determination is based upon:
(A) The 1999 Water and Sewer Master Plan prepared for the county by Wightman Associates, Inc. stated that:
“Cass County is fortunate to have a variety of natural features including lakes, streams, forests, and parks which have attracted and will continue to attract significant residential development. This is best exemplified by the urbanized development surrounding most of the lakes within the county. Existing commercial and industrial development provides jobs for residents and others. With the anticipated growth in commercial and industrial jobs, additional residential development is needed.”
(B) And made the following finding:
“It has been concluded that the construction of public wastewater collection and treatment systems to serve the urbanized areas of Cass County is a necessity to protect the surface waters for future generations and to protect the ground waters for continued use as a potable water source.”
(C) The Master Plan also stated the following:
“Consideration of sanitary sewers in the Sister Lakes Area began in the early 1970s when a Facilities Plan was prepared, funded by a grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The study recommended construction of sanitary sewers to service the developed area surrounding the six lakes within the service area.
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In 1998, Silver Creek and Keeler Townships funded a water quality study of the lakes. This study was completed to verify the need for a sewer system to maintain and improve lake water quality. The results documented that septic system effluent contributed between 20% and 51% of the phosphorus loading entering various lakes within the service area. It reconfirmed that the lakes are becoming eutrophic due to the amount of phosphorus being added to the water and concluded that the construction of sanitary sewers would reduce the inflow of phosphorus sufficiently to remove the lakes from the eutrophic state. This report documented the need for a wastewater collection and treatment system for the protection of lake water quality in the future. The Sister Lakes Wastewater Service Area includes all residential and commercial development surrounding all six lakes located in Silver Creek and Keeler Townships...”
(D) Finally, the Master Plan recommended that the Sister lakes Area in Silver Creek Township be considered for construction of a wastewater system by 2004.
(E) The express determination of the State Legislature set forth in § 333.12752 of the Michigan Public Health Code and which reads as follows: “Sec. 12752. Public sanitary sewer systems are essential to the health, safety, and welfare of the people of the state. Septic tank disposal systems are subject to failure due to soil conditions or other reasons. Failure or potential failure of septic tank disposal systems poses a threat to the public health, safety, and welfare; presents a potential for ill health, transmission of disease, mortality, and economic blight; and constitutes a threat to the quality of surface and subsurface waters of this state. The connection to available public sanitary sewer systems at the earliest, reasonable date is a matter for the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare and necessary in the public interest which is declared as a matter of legislative determination.”
(Ord. 01-03, passed 8-8-2001)