
Before the Village of Honor improved its wastewater treatment system in 2022, the team that runs it dealt with frequent maintenance issues.
The system, which includes a series of treatment lagoons and other structures and components that lie at the northeastern edge of the village, functioned fairly well, but some equipment wasn’t up to modern standards. Mechanical arms agitated the lagoons to provide aeration, for example, and they were subject to a lot of problems.
“They had to be cleaned frequently,” said Bill Ward, the village’s president. “They could get bent and broken, and they just took a lot of maintenance.”
The village was also going through a re-permitting process for its wastewater treatment system with the state of Michigan, which required some upgrades. The community of Honor, located along U.S. Highway 31 in Michigan’s scenic Benzie County, just a short drive away from both Traverse City and Lake Michigan, had saved money for wastewater system improvements and considered self-funding the needed work. But then Ward learned that funding might be available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development (RD). He reached out to Area Specialist Blake Smith in RD’s Traverse City office, who helped the village apply for funding.
RD’s loan requirements to fund the project were detailed, Ward said, but Smith provided support along the way, and in the end the village received two low-interest loans through RD’s Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program: a loan for $942,000 in 2020 and another for $158,000 in 2022, which supplemented the money the village had set aside.
The increase in funding allowed the village to go well beyond the work it was originally considering and to achieve two important objectives: constructing a new headworks facility, to replace one that was intended to be temporary but had been operating for seven years; and adding bubble aeration, to make treatment more efficient and effective.
The upgrades, now complete, provide several benefits for the approximately 425 residents the system serves in and nearby Honor, as well as for the waste haulers who bring wastewater from throughout the region.
“It is so much more efficient and so much lower-maintenance. That is just the key,” Ward said. “Our sewer administrator is free to do more things and keep working on other aspects of the system and some of his other roles without constantly trying to maintain that system. It was almost an every-other-day occurrence that had to take maintenance—physical maintenance: somebody to pick up one of the aerators, look at it, clean it, bend it, replace bent parts. It was just frequent.”
With the reduced maintenance time and costs, and with up-to-date equipment, the village will be better able to keep rates affordable for those who rely on the system. Communities are sometimes hit with big surprises—and major costs—when equipment can’t be maintained adequately and then needs a major overhaul, or, worse, fails. Another Michigan community is currently facing millions of dollars in costs to improve its wastewater system—a situation that has its residents concerned about utility bill increases.
“That’s why I’m so pleased that we were able to be proactive and make sure we could take care of things before it got to that point,” Ward said.
In addition, the improved headworks and new filtration system lengthen the season when the village can serve waste haulers, who bring wastewater from residential holding tanks, such as those used by boats and RVs. That brings associated revenue to the village and its small businesses for more of the year, while saving waste haulers longer-distance drives to other facilities.
Honor’s treated wastewater is used as irrigation on hay fields that are a final stage of purification, Ward said. The hay is harvested by a local farmer, and the fields are monitored for mineral content, an indicator of efficient treatment. For all communities, adequate wastewater treatment services are critical to environmental health and to keeping local watersheds healthy. The area surrounding Honor has a high water table, so there are extensive wetlands—one reason residents here need a sewer system rather than individual septic tanks. The system helps to keep contaminants out of the wetlands and out of other water bodies that are important resources for Ward and his neighbors, as well as for fish and wildlife.
Downhill from Honor’s wastewater treatment lagoons lies the Platte River, which runs along the southern edge of town toward Platte Lake before reaching a bay on Lake Michigan in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The Platte River is recognized as one of Michigan’s Blue Ribbon streams for fishing, and it’s also used for recreation, such as swimming and kayaking. A new 52-acre park along the Platte River, championed by the Honor Area Restoration Project, will increase fishing and other recreation opportunities for future generations—such as Ward’s 6-year-old granddaughter, when she visits, and some young families Ward said he has been pleased to see moving to town. Honor’s wastewater treatment system is an important part of the community’s commitment to keeping the Platte River watershed clean.
Ward moved to the area with his wife and their dog 11 years ago—after Ward’s retirement from teaching in Detroit Public Schools—in part because he loved the Platte River and other local waters. The family vacationed in the area, and he and his son would visit on fishing trips. Ward still fishes as often as he can. Honor is a walkable town, with shops, restaurants, and services only a short walk from many homes, and Ward can easily walk to the river when salmon are coming upstream.
Citing the area’s beauty, livability, convenience and sense of community, Ward said life in Honor is “pretty much the best of all worlds.” In addition to being the village’s president and a member of its planning commission, Ward serves on five community boards and councils. He has seen some changes in his time in Honor—notably, earlier springs, later falls and milder winters, with some winter activities, such as ice fishing, snowmobiling and skiing, occurring less frequently due to a lack of snow. But the pristine rivers still flow, full of trout and salmon. And the need for reliable town services, such as wastewater treatment, that help to protect the natural beauty so important to residents and visitors hasn’t changed a bit. Ward hopes the improved wastewater system will serve the region for generations.
“We really planned for the future," he said. “It’s a system that will sustain our needs for years to come.”