FLINT, MI—The city will continue checking and replacing residents’ service lines well into the year and possibly into 2020 after missing a “self-imposed” deadline of July 31 to complete its remaining service line work.
The work is ongoing, according to a Aug. 27 project summary by the state and the city is still in accordance with its legally-binding settlement to complete work by Jan. 1, 2020.
It’s unclear why Flint set a July 31 deadline. City officials didn’t respond to questions from The Flint Journal-MLive.
Service line work was carried out in the city in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The city was still replacing lines from last year’s Phase 5 of replacements this year. Phase 6 of replacements began in the middle of the year, according to officials from the Natural Resource Defense Fund (NRDC).
The settlement requires Flint dig at no more than 5,200 homes and replace its remaining lead or galvanized lines. Flint has dug at 2,895 homes this year and replaced 1,276 service lines, according to researchers monitoring the work.
The NRDC represented Flint residents in a $97 million settlement mandating the city and state remove 18,000 lead or galvanized service lines believed to exist in 2017 when the agreement was reached.
City officials announced the July 31 deadline at an April 3 city council finance committee meeting where members considered awarding $10.8 million to two service line replacement contractors.
Council awarded Lang Constructors $5.2 million and WT Stevens Construction $5.6 million to perform the service line work at no more than 5,200 homes. In past years, the city has hired two or more contractors for the project.
Rob Bincsik, Flint’s director of public works, called the deadline “self-imposed” for contractors at a July 3 City Council finance committee meeting. The meeting was held to rescind a $12.1 million contract from Goyette Mechanical and award the work for $10.2 million to WT Stevens Construction.
“That ‘goal’ was set by the city. Neither the EPA order nor the state has a definite timeline established other than to get them identified and replaced as soon as possible,” Scott Dean, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy strategic communications adviser, said.
Finding Flint’s lead service lines
Since 2016, Flint has dug at 22,767 homes and replaced 9,131 lead or galvanized service lines, according to the state’s summary.
Nearly half of those digs, 10,531, took place in 2018 and only 1,567 service lines were found to be lead or galvanized and replaced.
The city was comparatively less productive last year compared to its efforts in 2017. Workers dug at 8,833 homes in 2017 and replaced 6,228 lead or galvanized service lines--a 70 percent accuracy rate compared to last year’s 15 percent accuracy rate.
Michael McDaniel, the man originally charged with leading the city’s pipe replacement program, teamed up with researchers Jake Abernethy, Eric Schwartz and Jared Webb in 2016 to find lead pipes.
Abernethy, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Schwartz, of University of Michigan, and Webb, a data scientist, built a predictive model that uses historical data about a city, neighborhood and residence to predict the chance a home has lead or galvanized pipes.
AECOM, a Los Angeles-based engineering firm, was hired to replace McDaniel’s team in 2018. The engineering firm didn’t work with the researchers or use the predictive model.
Without statistical guidance or hydrovacing, an alternative digging tool the city stopped using in June 2018 under the direction of Mayor Karen Weaver, Flint’s rate for finding and replacing lead or galvanized service lines dropped to 15 percent.
Hydrovacing was the city’s primary source of confirming service line composition, according to meeting minutes between AECOM and Flint officials obtained by The Journal.
The minutes suggest contractors tasked with replacing lead services lines focused more on digging in neighborhoods historically known to have copper-to-copper lines rather than replacing lead or galvanized service lines.
City Council voted down extending AECOM’s contract on Jan. 14. Flint contracted ROWE Engineering for $2.1 million in March to oversee its pipe replacement project this year.
Through a court-approved amendment, signed by Judge U.S. District Judge David Lawson on March 26, Flint is now required to go back to using the data-driven model to find lead service pipes using the $97 million settlement.
Since returning to the model, Flint’s rate for finding and replacing lead service lines has shot back up to 70 percent, according to researchers.
Waiting for an archaeologist
Service pipe work in Flint’s ward with the highest predicted hit-rate for finding lead or galvanized pipes is on hold until the city hires an archaeologist to oversee digging.
Flint’s Ward 5 has an 83 percent hit-rate of lead or galvanized pipes, according to researchers. But only 105 of the 734 homes on the city’s 2019 excavation list have been dug.
An archaeologist is required to be present for excavations by the state because of ancient Native American burial grounds located within the ward.
A state inspector found Flint did service pipe work at 29 separate addresses within Ward 5 without an archaeologist present, according to a recent letter from a state official.
Researchers predict to find lead or galvanized service pipes at 550 of the 734 homes.
“This is the highest hit-rate out of any ward,” Webb said.