Flint’s lead contamination crisis shed a light on a larger national problem: aging water systems that are still serving customers via lead pipes. According to a study by USA today, they serve some fifty-three hundred US cities, and millions of Americans.
As many cities began scrambling for solutions, Lansing Michigan was quietly finishing a 44 million dollar project to remove lead pipes from its water infrastructure.
Lansing is one of only two cities in the country that has completely removed lead pipes from its water infrastructure..
I visit the publicly owned Board of Water and Light, located south of the State Capitol, which finished replacing the city’s lead service lines in December of 2016.
“We changed out over 12,150 lead services at a cost of $44.5 million and we did it over a 12 year timeframe.”
Dick Peffley is the General Manager of the Lansing Board of Water and Light. He said the city was only able to afford replacing its pipes by stretching it out over a long time.
“$44.5 million is a lot of money to any utility, especially water utilities, especially water utilities. But when you stretch it out over 12 years we were able to minimize the impact and pay for it with just a small rate increase. That allowed us to complete that project.”
The 12 year project came largely at the impetus of then state senator, Virg Bernero.
Bernero is now the Mayor of Lansing, and said he first became concerned about lead pipes after he read an article about lead in Washington, D.C.’s water supply.
“We started asking questions about the state of things to see if we have a similar situation and I really expected there to be a prompt response and get the all clear sign.”
Bernero said instead he felt like local officials didn’t have a clear understanding of how lead might be impacting Lansing’s water.
“We basically kept getting bland assurances from both the public health community, the water department, and the environmental community saying ‘don’t worry about it lead in the water just isn't a problem.’ And we were like ‘why isn’t it a problem? How do you know that?’”
Eventually a task force was appointed to look into lead in Lansing’s water supply. Benero said the federal lead and copper rule, which requires action if more than 10 percent of the city’s water has lead above actionable levels, poses a problem for local governments.
“It allows you to ignore areas where there are significant problems. The testing methodology is in my view flawed”
The task force recommended that Lansing’s lead pipes be replaced, and the Board of Water and Light quietly began replacing pipes across the city.
Nearly a decade later news would break of the Flint water crisis.
Bernero said Flint confirmed all of his worst fears.
“When we first started we were accused of blowing this out of proportion, that we were going to create a panic of some kind, that were were unnecessarily making people fearful. But we were proven right.”
Dick Peffley with the Board of Water and Light said as one of two cities that has changed out their pipes, they began getting attention.
“The calls didn’t start coming in until Flint became a national news story. Then we had a lot of calls. How did you do this, can you train us, will you share the technology? Which we did.”
Peffley said they developed a special pipe removal technique which helped cut costs. But he says the greatest asset by far was having the time to spread the 44 million dollar bill around. He said he realizes that’s not a luxury every city has.
Mayor Virg Bernero said he hopes Flint’s story serves as a call to action for cities across the country.
“What you don’t know, what you can’t see, can hurt you. And you need to know this. Our disinvestment in our infrastructure comes at a cost. Our predecessors invested mightily in the infrastructure of this country and we’re still riding on their shoulders, we’re still riding on their backs. Well it’s over.”
Because of its proactive stance, Lansing was able to avoid a lead contamination crisis like that seen in Flint. Now, cities across Michigan and the United States are rushing to follow Lansing’s lead… and avoid a major public health crisis that could impact their citizens for decades to come.