November 29, 2018
By Zahra Ahmad
...Had (click here) the city agreed to the terms outlined in a Nov. 1 letter from the Attorney General's office, its $4 million disbursement request, along with any requests for work done prior to Nov.1, would be reimbursed to Flint....
The State of Michigan simply will not do what is right and best for Flint, Michigan.
Nov. 5
...The state will not reimburse the city of Flint (click here) for its service line replacements until what the state claims are violations of a $97 million dollar settlement are resolved.
According to a letter from the state Attorney General's office dated Thursday, Nov. 1, the city is violating the settlement by its current excavation method and its failure to look for lead and galvanized water pipes.
Flint city officials could not be reached immediately for comment.
In 2017, a $97 million fund was set up by the state in a settlement to reimburse the city after social groups demanded enough funding to replace the estimated 18,000 hazardous lead and galvanized steel pipes in Flint.
The price of digging up and burying a copper pipe increased from $77 to $1,800 after contractors were directed to dig 8- to 10-foot holes without a hydrovac, according to the attorney generals' office letter.
The letter states this, along with the city's current method of finding lead, is in violation of the settlement's agreement and could leave hundreds of hazardous pipes underground and in use.
According to the letter, from 2016-17 the city used available information and a predictive model to find lead or galvanized pipes which resulted in a 71 percent hit rate for finding hazardous pipes. The city's current plan has dropped that hit rate to 20 percent this year....
I think Mayor Weaver is going to have to meet with the new Governor as soon as she takes office and has office hours to discuss this and get rid of the old agreement and redistribute the monies FOR RESPONSIBLE PIPES for Flint residents. This is ridiculous. These people get no piece of mind and they will stop drinking the water again.
August 15, 2018
By Ron Fonger
...The mayor has said (click here) hydro excavation resulted in some lead and galvanized pipe having been missed and instead has required contractors dig a minimum of 4 feet on both sides of the curb stop, exposing much more of the service line.
"The mayor is correct that canceling the hydrovac contract was done to protect the health and safety of Flint residents," Joe Parks, project manager for Goyette, said in an email to MLive-The Flint Journal....
...Last week, Weaver visited service line replacement crews on the job, vowing to continue to use only traditional excavation tools like backhoes and shovels.
In addition to missing lead and galvanized lines that have been spliced with other material, city officials have said they risk breaking utility lines with high-pressure water and vacuum.
"We're going to ... take our time and do it right," the mayor said during a Facebook broadcast. "I think people's lives are worth it."...
