Traverse City could join other communities across Michigan fighting back against new state rules – the toughest in the country – cracking down on lead pipes in public water supply systems.

The legislation, passed in June, was a response to the Flint water crisis and requires Michigan communities to replace all lead service lines in public water systems. While community officials have expressed their support for maintaining the safety and quality of public drinking water, numerous cities have opposed the new rules, saying they amount to an “unfunded mandate” in which no state funding is being provided to help cities meet the new requirements. Instead, water ratepayers are expected to foot the bill – a tab that could amount into the tens of millions of dollars in Traverse City, Director of Municipal Utilities Art Krueger said at Monday’s city commission meeting.

“It’s a very significant cost burden being placed on community water systems like us,” he said.

Traverse City has replaced almost all of the lead pipes in the city-controlled portion of the water system, including the short “gooseneck” sections of pipe that connect the city’s main distribution line to the property service line running up to an individual home or business. The city spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to replace the last remaining lead goosenecks over the last few years, Krueger said, with only three still remaining in the city. But the new state rules say cities are responsible for ensuring that no lead lines - or galvanized steel pipes that were previously connected to lead components - are in use anywhere throughout the entire public water supply system, including the privately owned service lines running through homeowners’ backyards and properties.

Those rules would mean Traverse City would have to first conduct an inventory of its approximately 7,400 service lines – with a preliminary inventory due by 2020 and a more in-depth inventory due by 2025 – then notify all property owners with lead or galvanized steel lines that the city will replace those sections of private pipe at its expense. If a property owner declines, the city doesn’t have to replace the line. But Krueger said that as one example, if Traverse City had to replace 50 percent of lines at a cost of $3,000 to $5,000 per line, it’d be a nearly $20 million project. The new rules allow cities to tackle such projects at a replacement rate of five percent of lines per year – but that would still leave an annual bill of roughly $1 million, Krueger said.

Cities ranging in size from Jackson to small Michigan townships have found the bill would increase ratepayers’ costs by an average of 32 percent, according to Krueger. In Traverse City, that would bump the monthly average water base rate from $14 to $18.50 – a “substantial jump,” he said.

City staff also expressed frustration that the rules would likely do little to change water quality in Traverse City – the city is already testing well within federal guidelines that put a limit on lead in drinking water of 15 parts per billion, Krueger said. The new rules will drop that level to 12 parts per billion in Michigan by 2025. Krueger expressed his strong “confidence” the city was not putting out water with lead and said properties that tested higher than normal for lead levels tended to have on-site factors, such as lead fixtures in the home, that created spikes in levels.

Echoing the remarks of other community leaders who have categorized the legislation as a sweeping overreaction to the Flint crisis, City Manager Marty Colburn said the new rules are “not backed by science” and will have “significant ramifications for all water providers throughout the state.”

“There’s just not one piece of policy that fits every community,” he said. “The fact of the matter is we have a very good, sound water source, we have a good water system that’s reliable…our professional opinion is (this legislation) is not the appropriate way to handle this situation.” Several commissioners appeared to agree, backing Colburn’s desire to have City Attorney Lauren Trible-Laucht research the new rules as well as challenges to the state from other cities – including Jackson, Detroit, and Oakland County – and return to commissioners with a recommendation on how to proceed. “This seems like an unfunded mandate with a lot of Lansing lip service, as well as property right issues that are pretty obvious,” Commissioner Amy Shamroe said.

Governor Rick Snyder earlier this year called the legislative overhaul necessary to improve public safety. "The federal Lead and Copper Rule simply does not do enough to protect public health," Snyder said in a statement. "As a state, we could no longer afford to wait on needed changes at the federal level, so Michigan has stepped up to give our residents a smarter, safer rule - one that better safeguards water systems in all communities. With these more stringent standards, Michigan will serve as a role model to other states looking to improve their own public health protections."

Also at Monday’s commission meeting…
> Commissioners received an update on a citywide sidewalk repair and construction project expected to take place over the next three years. City leaders recently agreed to bond $4.5 million for the project, but were informed by project consultants Monday that updated cost estimates now put the repairs at over $5 million, making the project 12 percent over budget. Repairs include nearly 50,000 feet of sidewalk improvements in Traverse Heights neighborhood, 3,000 feet in the East Front Street and Indian Woods neighborhood, and close to 3,000 feet on South Garfield Avenue south of Boon Street. Commissioners indicated their support for consultants' recommendation to eliminate a few key costly intersection and sidewalk upgrades where grading, slope, or tree barriers were ballooning costs in order to bring the project back on budget. Those areas include the northwest and southeast corners of the Kelley and Grant streets intersection, the east side of Barlow Street between Carver and Center streets, and the north row along East Front Street east of Apache Pass and East Bay Boulevard.

Commissioners noted that eliminating the challenging sections wouldn't mean those areas would never receive sidewalk improvements, but rather that they wouldn't be prioritized as part of the immediate upcoming three-year project.