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Water rules hit Esky city finances

ESCANABA — Communities across Michigan are feeling the long-term effects of the Flint water crisis as they grapple with the latest Department of Environmental Quality regulations. For Escanaba, the new rules raise questions about private property, the validity of local ordinances, hiring practices, and how to fund line replacement projects that could cost into the millions.

“What I’m trying to prepare for is how do we budget going forward? How do we comply with these laws that not one community wants to follow or agrees with?,” said city Water and Wastewater Superintendent Jeff Lampi at a special meeting with the Escanaba City Council Tuesday morning.

In Escanaba, it is not uncommon for water mains to have an 18- to 24-inch lead gooseneck that connects the main to galvanized pipe headed towards a home. The lead goosenecks were historically used for the connectors because they were easier to bend into the proper shape, and in recent history the goosenecks have been replaced when city workers made repairs to the mains or to streets the mains were under.

However, the new DEQ rules require more than just the removal of the portion of the pipe containing lead. Because it is believed small bits of lead can migrate from the leaded portion of the line to cracks or other areas of the galvanized pipe, DEQ is now mandating cities replace water lines up to the meters, which are typically located inside the basement of a home.

That presents a problem for the city, which has policies and ordinance language prohibiting the city from working on or using public funds for work on private property. It also raises concerns over the legality of city employees entering homes, as state law currently requires anyone working on plumbing inside a home be a licensed plumber — a license no city workers currently carry.

“I see this council as the advisory committee. You lay down the rules and the laws and I march on and comply. Right here, we’ve got rules that I can’t follow as per current city policy’s rules. You know, it’s one thing following state laws, but I’ve got to break our laws to do it,” said Lampi.

While it is expected some residents will simply refuse to allow city workers into their homes — in which case the city can provide appropriate literature about the dangers of lead in drinking water — the city is faced with the added cost of footing the bill for work on private property.

Those costs are further compounded by the fact the new rules require the city to replace all service lines containing lead at an average rate of 5 percent over the next 20 years. That means roughly 200 homes would need complete line replacements every year.

“We could be looking a $1.2 to $1.6 million a year for this type of work,” said Lampi, who noted it could cost up to $90,000 per city block if water main replacements required street repairs.

And it’s not just lead lines or lines attached to lead connectors that could need replacement. Because the city has historically only replaced the portion of the water service that contained lead and left the rest up to the home owner to replace, some lines that have been disconnected from lead for decades could still need replacement.

“We’ve got 30 years of copper going on the city side without the homeowners doing theirs, so all of those areas are still considered lead service lines because they had that gooseneck upstream (at one time). So that entire line is still counted as a problem spot,” said Lampi.

The city is required to submit a plan to the state outlining how it intends to meet the requirements for line replacement. Mayor Pro-Tem Ron Beauchamp argued the city should submit a plan that does not include any line replacements for the first year so the new rules have time to be challenged in court. Because the 5 percent replacement is an average over the 20 year period, it would be theoretically feasible to take a year off from the project and just do emergency repairs.

However, that may not work in reality. Currently, the city crews working for the water department include only two regular workers, one open spot on the crew, and the possibility of drawing in a fourth crew member from the water plant if needed. Even with a full crew of four, a single line replacement can take an entire day to complete. At 200 homes a year to reach 5 percent over the entire 20 year period, it could take crews working more than six months of the year — far longer than the U.P. weather permits.

“Any replacement work right now we’d have to contract out. We’d have to hire someone,” said Lampi, who noted the crews do have other responsibilities and the city has simply become “too lean” for the work.

Using contractors further obscures the future cost of the line replacements, and means the city would need to change its hiring policy to allow the contractors to be hired.

As the special meeting was a workshop, no actions were taken, though council members stated they would think about how to best handle the new rules and whether or not to allow city crews into private residences.

In other business, the council swore in new city clerk Phil DeMay and appointed Greg Grant, of CMDA Law in Traverse City, to act as the legal council for the city in an ongoing unemployment appeal. All members of the council approved the appointment with the exception of Council Member Michael Sattem who abstained.

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