Great Lakes Water Facilities

Facilities

We are continually updating our facilities to optimize water and wastewater treatment for the benefit of our member partners and the environment.

To improve and optimize system efficiency, we invest significant time into maintaining and improving our facilities. This includes, but is not limited to, performing regular condition assessments and installing greener technology to become a Utility of the Future.

Capital Improvement Plan

GLWA’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) supports the continuation of major capital asset investments to upgrade the Authority’s aging infrastructure. The five year plan is updated annually to reflect changing system needs, priorities and funding opportunities. Click on Learn More to view our current and historical CIP plans.

Facilities


GLWA Facility Tours

The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) conducts tours at its Water Works Park Treatment Plant (WWP) and Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF – formerly WWTP).

CSO

Strategic Asset Management Plan

GLWA’s Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) establishes our asset management framework. Through the creation of GLWA’s asset management vision, policy, objectives and best practices, the SAMP will help us achieve the plan’s vision of being a “leader in infrastructure management by making decisions informed by risk, regional needs, and lifecycle considerations.”

Asset Management Plans

GLWA’s Asset Management Plans (AMPs) apply the principles of the SAMP to both the water and wastewater systems to identify the existing state of our assets and governance business processes and chart a path forward to continually improve the effective management of these resources to meet GLWA’s Asset Management objectives.

WATER BOARD BUILDING

GLWA is headquartered in the Water Board Building, which is owned by the City of Detroit.

The Art Deco-style Water Board Building has been a familiar part of Detroit’s skyline since October 1928. A $1 million budget was set in 1927 for a triangular-shaped building on the land bounded by Randolph, Farmer and Bates Streets. The completed building reflects the trend toward simplification of forms typical of the Jazz Age. Standing 23 stories tall, it is comprised of a five-story base, a 15-story shaft and a three-story penthouse.

Louis Kamper, a Detroit-based architect known for his work on Detroit landmarks like the Book Building (1917), the Washington Boulevard Building (1923), and the Book-Cadillac Hotel (1924), originally planned for a 14-story building. But, because of the high value of the site, the Board decided to build to twenty stories instead. It was one of the last buildings designed by Kamper, who was in his late sixties during its design and construction.

The new building was constructed in a record-breaking seven months. The Randolph Street entrance is surrounded in marble, with a three-foot band of polished pink and grey granite that wraps completely around the base of the building. The exterior of the penthouse – the building’s top three floors – is painted terra cotta, setting it off from the Bedford Limestone walls that enclose the building’s lower 20 floors. The two-tone appearance gives it a distinctive air in a Detroit skyline increasingly dominated by even taller and more modern buildings.