FLINT, MI-- Incomplete designs of a pipeline connecting Flint to its emergency back-up water source have postponed plans beyond the deadline.
Flint’s water service contract with the Great Lakes Water Authority required the city complete a pipeline connecting it to the county’s water provider, the Karegnondi Water Authority, by Dec. 31. The pipeline won’t be constructed by then because final designs for the project still haven’t been submitted, according to an Aug. 27 state summary of Flint’s water projects.
The summary states there’s hope Flint’s contractor, Wade Trim Engineering, will turn in final designs sometime in September. Wade Trim didn’t immediately return The Flint Journal-MLive’s request for comment.
State officials redirected questions to the city of Flint. The city didn’t respond to The Flint Journal-MLive’s requests to clarify why the project is behind its intended date of completion.
“The pipeline project contract is between the city and their contractor,” said Scott Dean, strategic communications adviser for the the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.
KWA is a public authority originally created by the county and the city of Flint with the goal of replacing water purchases from the city of Detroit. The Detroit water system was transformed to the GLWA on Jan. 1, 2016, when the city of Detroit began leasing regional water and sewer infrastructure, as well as water and wastewater treatment facilities, to GLWA.
Following the Flint water crisis, GLWA purchased Flint’s stake in KWA and as part of the deal, the city signed a 30-year contract to continue buying its water from GLWA.
The KWA pipeline, drawing water from Lake Huron and a county water treatment plant in Lapeer County, went into service in late 2017, ending the county’s dependence on the Great Lakes Water Authority, which the city of Flint still purchases its treated water from.
The city isn’t building the KWA emergency pipeline in coordination with the county, clarified Kevin Sylvester, a deputy county drain commissioner.
“(Genesee County Drain Commission) has no jurisdiction and will not have any role in that construction,” Sylvester said.
The county says it’s leaving the cost of drinking water to the suburbs unchanged for the second straight year, and Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright previously said it’s because the county has become a water owner instead of a water customer.
Flint’s rate for getting drinking water from Detroit went up about 2 percent on July 1, records show. GLWA’s increase will charge Flint $11.4 million annually compared to $11 million the city paid for drinking water to be treated and pumped from Detroit in 2019.
Residents aren’t seeing an increase in their individual water rates, however. Candice Mushatt, Flint’s public information officer, previously said the city is doing everything within its power to prevent any increases in the water rates.