Oakland Co. investing $32 million in high-tech waste treatment facility in Pontiac

PONTIAC, Mich. (WJBK) - Oakland County has kicked off a major renovations at a waste treatment facility in Pontiac.

The Clinton River Water Resource Recovery Facility will be the first in Michigan and the second in the country to use thermal hydrolysis pre-treatment, and anaerobic digestion.

What does that mean? Bottom line, it will cost less to break down waste, and will be more environmentally friendly, because the plant will produce a bio-solid material that can be used as fertilizer.

"Right now, we're spending over a million dollars a year just getting rid of the sludge we have. Now, we'll ... be able to give it to the community; we'llsell it to the market it we can; there's lots of ways of saving money by doing this," says Jim Nash, Oakland County Water Resource Commissioner. "So it's going to have an impact economically; it's going to have an impact on the environment because we'll have a cleaner environment."

The $32 million project will take around two years to finish.

Officials say it will create about 100 jobs.