The Grand
Rapids Press
By
Follow
on Twitter
on February 26, 2016 at 9:38 AM, updated February 26, 2016 at 1:31 PM
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - A rough
estimate to replace some 17,000 lead water lines in the city is $50 million. The
political will to spend that kind of money on that kind of work: Zero.
A former city commissioner
thinks it's short-sighted for Grand Rapids to keep lead water lines in the
ground, but current city leaders say replacing the lines would be throwing money
at a problem that doesn't exist.
"If I learn that it's
not enough (what we're doing to keep lead out of the water), that's one thing,
but we have to live within a budget so the bottom line is making sure, with the
resources we have, that our residents are indeed safe," Second Ward City
Commissioner Ruth Kelly said.
Bill Blickley, a former Third
Ward commissioner from 1984 to 1992, thinks Grand Rapids is making a mistake.
He pushed for replacement of lead water lines last year when a street on which
he owns five properties was torn up.
He now thinks the city should
be more proactive in replacing lead lines elsewhere - both the city's portion
from the water main in the street to the curb stop in front of a house, and the
private portion from the curb stop into the house.
In response to emails from
Blickley this month, Kelly - whom Blickley said has been the city commissioner
most responsive to him - wrote "there isn't the level of urgency
necessitating the expense" because regular testing of Grand Rapids water
has found relatively low levels of lead.
"We might alarm people
when there is no need for alarm," Kelly wrote.
"That's what they said
in Flint: 'There's no problem here,'" Blickley said. "It's a crisis
waiting to happen. We have to replace them. We have to be concerned about the
kind of water people will drink 50 years from now."
RELATED:
Here
is what's up with lead water lines in Grand Rapids
Regular testing of Grand
Rapids water has found lead levels well below federal limits, dating back to
the mid-1990s. Before the city started putting a phosphate coating on lead
water pipes in 1994, lead levels were much higher.
The federal action level for lead contamination is 15 parts per billion. The
most recent city testing, which is conducted at 50 homes every three years,
showed that 90 percent of homes tested had a lead level of
2.2
parts per billion or less. The next lead testing is scheduled this summer.
"We think the health
issue has been fully addressed," City Manager Greg Sundstrom said.
"The evidence is so strong."
Grand Rapids estimates that
there are 17,000 lead water lines between mains in the street and curb stops in
front of houses. There likely are more than that running between curb stops and
houses because property owners rarely replace their portion of the pipe when
the city replaces its portion.
The city offers to finance
the replacement of the private portion of the line at 7 percent interest, but
it's generally not a popular expense. Blickley said he urged neighbors to pay
the cost last year and was unable to persuade many to do it.
Grand Rapids should work with
plumbers to replace lead service lines on entire city blocks, either covering
the cost from the public purse or placing the cost as a lien on the properties,
Blickley said.
"I just think that's
poor management," he said. "You need to do preventive maintenance,
especially when it's the most economical (and streets are already torn up for
sewer or road work).
"The houses that we live
in today, we may have title to them and ownership of them, but we aren't going
to be the only people living in those. They really are community resources. The
city is responsible for our health and safety now and into the future and they
need to do whatever it takes to see that those lines from the curb stop into
the house are replaced."
RELATED:
•
Funding
still needed for new $55M plan to replace lead service lines in Flint
•
5,000
lead water lines would cost $9 million to replace in Bay City
Grand Rapids has not
installed lead water lines for the past 80 years. The city keeps records of
lead lines on paper files stored in envelopes.
City administrators have an
idea of where lead lines are located, but not a good grasp of it, Sundstrom
said. The cost of digitizing those files, or replacing the pipes at a rough
cost of $3,000 per home, would have to be borne through higher water rates, he
said.
Sundstrom said he is working
on a proposal to change the interest rate from the current 7 percent to a
floating mark that's pegged to market rates.
Mayor Rosalynn Bliss said
she's more concerned about
lead
hazards in paint in older houses.
"If we have resources,
I'd like to follow the data" that shows lead-based paint is the problem,
Bliss said.