Like municipalities throughout Michigan, South Haven finds itself faced with replacing lead pipes in its water system.
Due to a Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy decision in 2019 to amend portions of the state’s Safe Water Drinking Act involving lead and copper rules, the South Haven Area Water and Sewer Authority must replace lead service lines leading to homes and businesses.
South Haven officials say they understand the state’s efforts to avoid another Flint water crisis, where high levels of lead were discovered in the city’s water system. However, they say the price tag to do so across the state is steep.
“We have never exceeded acceptable lead levels in our drinking water supply,” Bill Hunter, director of the city’s department of public works, said at a Monday city council meeting. “But these are the rules and I’m enforcing them.”
In SHAWSA’s service area alone, an estimated 2,000 galvanized water pipes that have lead goosenecks, will cost $24 million to replace. SHAWSA serves the city of South Haven and portions of South Haven and Casco townships.
Although municipalities throughout the state have 20 years to replace lead service lines, grants are few and far between, leaving local governments no choice but to raise water and sewer rates.
SHAWSA has done so over the past couple of years, but is now looking at the possibility of obtaining federal funds through the American Rescue Plan Act.
Van Buren County is being allotted $14.6 million in funding through the federal act’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds program. SHAWSA hopes to obtain $2 million.
“I feel we have a strong application,” Hunter said. “I’m asking for safe drinking water.”
But obtaining the full amount doesn’t look very promising, according to Hunter, who filled out the paperwork to obtain the funds and attended the county’s ARPA Funding Committee meeting earlier this month.
“It looked like a hard pill for them to swallow,” Hunter told city council members.
Instead, the committee asked Hunter if the units of government that belong to SHAWSA would be willing to provide some matching funds.
“I saw they had a lot of funds earmarked,” he said, “but everything on their agenda was tabled for now.”
In an attempt to obtain some ARPA funding from the county, SHAWSA is asking its member municipalities to each chip in $160,156 in matching funds. For its part, the SHAWSA board has agreed to also kick in $160,156.
City council members voted Monday to contribute their share, while Casco Township board OK’d the measure on Tuesday. South Haven Township board members voted to do so earlier this month, as well. With SHAWSA’s contribution, the matching funds will total $640,625.
The Van Buren County ARPA funding committee’s next meeting is Feb. 1 in the county commissioners chambers in Paw Paw.
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Originally Appeared Here