KALAMAZOO, MI -- More than 200 lead pipes delivering water to residents in Kalamazoo Township will be removed this summer.

Monday night, the Kalamazoo City Commission approved a $848,110 construction contract with Rieth - Riley Construction Co., Inc. to replace the lines. Kalamazoo's Department of Public Services is tackling the problem head on, coordinating replacements throughout the city's water system with scheduled road and infrastructure projects.

The Road Commission of Kalamazoo County recently bid out a project to rehabilitate and reconstruct several streets in Kalamazoo Township, with Rieth-Riley Construction Co., Inc. the lowest responding bidder. Rieth-Riley has performed similar work for the city in the past.

Project funding for the lead service line replacement will be provided through the city's 2017 Water Capital Improvement Budget.

Public Services Director James Baker said lead services will be replaced all the way to the meter. The city uses a pulling technique that minimizes disruption to lawns, he said, so in most situations there will be a cut in the road at the main and a small cut where the curb stop is located.

Residents will be notified via door hangers to schedule a time to enter the basement location by city crews and contractors.

Baker said the the city plans to replace 480 lead services through the 2017 construction season. Lead services have been removed since 1992, but Baker said the effort was ramped up following the Flint water crisis.

The city replaced 120 lead service lines in 2016, however, at least 2,917 still remained by the end of the year. Kalamazoo had historically averaged the removal of around 100 lead pipes per year, Baker said.

"We're following the goal of really getting after lead under streets projects," Baker said.

A high concentration of lead services are in Kalamazoo Township and the city's oldest neighborhoods.

An area defined as "Kalamazoo Township East" contains 754 addresses with lead lines, a quarter of the total amount. Twenty percent are located in 608 Edison Neighborhood addresses and 12 percent lie in 348 locations in the Northside Neighborhood.

According to a recent report, 7,308 lines connecting customers to the city water main were unidentified by the end of the year, meaning the city doesn't know what they are made out of.

Most of the service lines in Kalamazoo's water system are copper, brass, galvanized or other materials. Water mains that service lines hook up to are made of ductile iron or cast iron.

The majority of undefined lead lines are in the heart of the city, focused in a band between Vine Street and Patterson Street.

A heat map shows the locations with the highest density of lead services in Kalamazoo. (Courtesy | City of Kalamazoo)

After reviewing the list of streets provided from Kalamazoo Township, the city's Department of Public Services identified at total of 203 houses with lead services, along with an additional 27 which were undefined as to the service material.

There are currently 257 Lead Services identified for replacement during 2017 within the city of Kalamazoo, of which a contract will be presented for consideration at a later date. It is anticipated that Foundation for Excellence funds will be requested to assist the replacements.

The city could use its own crews to perform the lead service replacement in Kalamazoo Township, though this was not recommended as they are already working on lead service replacements for other projects along with numerous other duties, and do not have sufficient staffing to complete the work in the required time.

How clean is your water?

Though there is no detectable lead in the city's water supply system when it leaves 16 pumping stations, small amounts can dissolve into drinking water if it sits for several hours in plumbing fixtures containing the toxic element. Roughly 130,000 people are hooked up to the system.

Kalamazoo's groundwater source has elevated levels of iron, manganese, and hardness. This largely poses aesthetic issues and not health concerns.

Since 1956, sodium hexa-metaphosphate has been pumped into the system for iron sequestration and to reduce corrosion. It also helps prevent possible color, taste and staining issues in the water distribution system.

Nine tests of city drinking water have been conducted since 1992, in compliance with the EPA Lead and Copper Rule. If the 90th percentile of concentrations are at or exceed 15 ppb, or 1300 ppb for copper, the EPA requires the system to undertake a number of actions to control corrosion.

Due to the public concern expressed over the Flint water system lead problem, the city collected lead and copper monitoring data a year early.

In 2016, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality required the city to increase the number of water quality sampling locations, number of water quality parameters, and total number of water quality samples within the distribution system.

Last year's results were the best yet.

Of samples from 148 homes, 90 percent were at or below 4 parts per billion for lead and 896 parts per billion for copper. In 2014, metal contamination was at its highest since the federal and state required testing two decades ago, at 13 ppb for lead and 1200 ppb for copper.

Another water quality report is due in the first quarter of 2017.