FLINT, MI-- Five companies will design upgrades to Flint’s sewer infrastructure at a time when the system is at risk of “catastrophic failure,” city officials say.

Flint City Council approved $964,750 in contracts for capital improvement designs by DLZ, Johnson & Anderson, Hubbell, Roth and Clark, Inc. and Wade Trim, Inc with a 5-4 vote at its Monday, May 13 meeting. Council people Kate Fields, Ward 4, Monica Galloway, Ward 7, Allan Griggs, Ward 8, and Eva Worthing, Ward 9, dissented.

City officials are applying for a $34 million state sewer revolving loan to fund the projects.

Improvements to a major city pump station is one of the three projects. An infrastructure failure will require “multi-millions of dollars" to fix, Flint’s Waste Water Control Manager Jeanette Best said.

“If this major pump station fails, it’s gonna take out the whole northwest section of town,” Best said.

Aged infrastructure imposes large risks

Flint identified nine capital improvement projects to its water pollution control plant, 4652 Beecher Rd, in 2016 while creating an asset management plan, Director of Public Works Rob Bincsik said.

The federally mandated plan requires the city’s water pollution control plant to identify required capital improvement projects over a 20-year period.

Flint’s predecessors neglected its infrastructure for decades and it’s catching up with the city, Bincsik said.

“We’ve arrived at the end of the road where we’re going to have a catastrophic failure if we don’t try to fix some of these major projects,” Bincsik said.

Flint’s wastewater treatment plant was built in the 1950s. It’s the single most important factor for insuring the water quality of the Flint River, according to the city’s website.

Wastewater is pumped from homes and businesses to the plant, cleaned, then discharged into the Flint River. Postponing the projects will have consequences, city officials said.

“I don’t know when it will happen,” Bincsik said. “But I can promise you that if we don’t do these capital improvement projects we will run into a place where we can’t treat sewage.”

Wastewater projects

Wade Trim will design the rehabilitation of Flint’s “influent structure,” the plant’s first treatment unit, for $210,000.

The influent structure receives sewage from three pumping stations. According to a city resolution, the structure was built 60 years ago and is extremely deteriorated after being soaked in a corrosive mix of water.

An evaluation of the 54-inch waterline found cracking, exposed aggregate material and significant deterioration.

“If there is a failure we would not be able to get the wastewater to the treatment processes," Best said.

Johnson & Anderson and DLZ’s engineering services to improve Flint’s Northwest Pumping Station were contracted for $169,753.

About 50 million gallons of wastewater is treated in Flint everyday. The treatment plant has several remote pumping stations, according to Flint’s website.

Three main lift stations pump wastewater into the plant’s influent. Two pumps are located on the wastewater plant’s grounds and one is located near Kettering University.

“Looking at its (wastewater plant) history, I know it had a pump failure few years ago,” Best said.

The failure flooded several basements and houses in a portion of town and cost the city a $15 million settlement, Best said.

Improvements at the Northwest Pump Station involve pump replacement to more efficiently manage dry weather flows and construction of a new force main.

Hubbell and Roth & Clark will design disinfection improvements to Flint’s wastewater treatment plant. The two-year contract is for $685,000.

Disinfection at the plant is done by using chlorine dissolved in final effluent water prior to mixing a secondary effluent. Sulfur dioxide is mixed in water and introduced into the disinfected water to remove residual chlorine.

“These gases are highly toxic and pose dangers to workers and the surrounding community,” Best said. “Converting the disinfection system to ultraviolet light disinfection would eliminate these potential threats to workers and neighboring communities while reducing the amount of maintenance required.”

Project funding

Flint’s Wastewater Plant will use the city’s 590 Sewer Fund to finance the engineering contracts.

The projects have been budgeted for this year, Bincsik said.

Flint is seeking a $34 million state loan to make up for cuts to capital improvements proposed in Mayor Karen Weaver’s proposed $55.6 million budget for fiscal year 2019-2020.

The department is expected to be $1.6 million in the red in 2019-2020 and $3.7 million in the red in 2023-2024. To offset the department’s deficit, money will have to be pulled from the city’s $20.4 million general fund.

The budget cuts Flint’s wastewater treatment funds from $13 million to $10.7 million. Less than $1 million of that funding is for capital improvements, Bincsik said at a Friday, April 26 city council budget hearing.

Council members Fields, Worthing and Monica Galloway, Ward 7, raised concerns about using the sewer and general funds to support the project’s design.

Worthing asked why $120 million in Water Infrastructure Improvement for the Nation (WIIN) funding wasn’t allocated for the capital improvement projects.

“WIIN money is allocated for the 591 (drinking water) fund,” Binscik said. “The money could only go toward drinking water not sewage treatment.”

Flint can apply for the state to forgive 40 percent of the $34 million loan, Binscik said. The loan will prevent the city from paying capital improvement costs “up front.”

“Our goal is not to raise anyone’s rates, it’s to keep people’s rates flat,” Binscik said. “Frankly if we don’t go after this loan, I don’t know how we’d fund the projects.”

A public hearing will be set and residents will have 30-days to study the department’s plans for the projects.