East Lansing and Meridian Township will use a $2 million state grant to improve their shared public water system.

Each community gets its drinking water from groundwater reserves.

The grant will allow the East Lansing-Meridian Water and Sewer Authority to fund equipment that will protect that source during a filter sterilization process.

Manager Clyde Dugan says the treatment plant will recover backwash water in a closed system.

“It preserves the integrity of the groundwater so that we don’t have any possibility of exposure to surface water contamination,” Dugan said.

Dugan says residents won’t see or taste any difference in their water.

“We will maintain the same treatment process for the drinking water supply that we have in the past,” he added. “This just makes it a little bit more safe from contamination.”

The grant contributes to an ongoing $9 million water system upgrade.

Dugan says this current phase is part of a five-year expansion program.