Muskegon County has received a $28 million state grant to modernize the aging wastewater infrastructure, part of a $64 million project to replace the system that currently serves Norton Shores, Muskegon Heights, Fruitport and the city of Muskegon.
Greater Muskegon Economic Development President and CEO Trevor Friedeberg says modernizing the network will strengthen capabilities for the region’s agricultural and food processing companies, like the expansion of Chobani in Norton Shores.
“The beautiful part about this particular project is that it's going to unlock growth for a company, but also unlock additional growth for the community because it's focused on doing some upgrades to pipelines, putting in a new lift station that actually runs through about 50% of the population of Muskegon County that will benefit from these upgrades.”
The existing wastewater system is prone to failure and lacks capacity to support future regional growth.
County Administrator Mark Eisenbarth notes the project will benefit residential as well as commercial interests.
“We are seeing a lot of houses being built in our area. We want to be able obviously be able to handle the water flow as well as the wastewater flow for that. Anytime we bring in jobs or businesses, they're hiring additional people, and we want housing available for them, so now we're receiving both industrial growth and housing growth.”
Eisenbarth also expects the creation of hundreds of area jobs when construction begins in 2027.
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