The Marquette Water and Wastewater facilities annually bid out process control chemicals except for belt press polymer. The supplier of belt press polymer is selected through a performance-based evaluation. Belt press polymer is utilized in the solids handling process for dewatering and thickening of treatment sludge prior to digestion and disposal. Polymers are unique in that each of the polymers on the market have different chemical make-up and require field testing to determine which polymer offers the best performance to meet the needs of the Wastewater Treatment Plant solids handling process. Because of this, competitive bidding provides no advantage to the city.