USG Advanced Pipe
Cleaning (Ice Pigging).pdf; 0707_036.pdf;
Importance: High
Harvey,
We've got two issues | warted io update you on, After irying to do this all in a single ermal, | realized
it gets messy. So this is the first of two.
The water qualily question remains undar consideration. fve had a couple meetings this week with
our drinking water team. i will circle back and push them for a specific recommendation on a good
retail filter. Thus far, they ve presenied a range of options and been uncomfortable going past that
because a} we dont specialize in home filtration. We're in charge of commercial / municipal size
sysiems. And b} most filiration systems remove contaminants anc toxics and organics. There’s no
way to know for sure # @ faucet model will effectively work on odor or color issues until someone
installs it and tries if out. For that, we'd need a horne that has reported discolored / smelly water. And
for that, Pd imagine we'd need to connect with the city and see if they've gat logs of residents wha
have made these complaints.
The other potential help thet could come fran the state -- and after conversations with our folks |
maintain it might be the best hein we can give them -- has to do with maintenance. Of the &2 million
announced in January from Treasury, $900,000 was earmarked for developing a maintenance triage
dan. As that cornes together, the next step will be actual maintenance. This means replacing valves
and rotten sections of pipe, but # also means “pigging” lines wilh an inline device that runs through
water transmission lines and forces oul arly Oulll-up... material in coordination with bleeding stagnant
water vie hydrants, this would probably be the fastest, most effective way to address the discolored /
odorific walter.
Our dapariment specialists working with Flint imparted in an internal meeting this marning that the city
has been a lithe reliceni to pig their lines because the systern is im such a condition that they worry a
valve opened warrt close (and vice versa}, ark! a line thal is barely stil functional mighi get blown by
the pigging. Our position is that would be preferable - maintenance, after all, is about addressing
those very situations. But if funding can be identified, through SOM or some foundation benefactor,
and we can convince the city to tackle the work, this would be a great way to spend it. The PDF files
enclosed offer some more inforrnation about wha this is, how if works, ete.
Pm stil working fo get @ report of all the local rnunicipal violations over the past two years. The two
staff in the drinking water division who run ihase database searches are cut of state this week, in
Florida and Alaska respectively. Division assures re they'll get ihat report run as @ priority upon
return of those folks next week. in the mesniime, here are sorne images (ihe Joeg titled COLLAGE).
KH shows various conditions, mostly at mobile home parks around the siate, where the waier system
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has fsiied. May or may nat be of use, but if nothing else it exemplifies that this siudf happens, much as
we try io make sure Hi does nat.
This is emai one of two. The other issue | will present in the next ernall. Hit is at all possible, i'd
sugges! we need to assemble Treasury, MOCH, DEG and Ambrose + RS team sametime Monday fo
gel everyone briefed on whal each agency is daing in Flint right now and what we may need to do
next. Don't know ff that mesting gets called by you or Dennis, but | think you end | agres thal we need
aunited, coordinated team approach to develop quickly.
Thanks,
b
Brad Wurfel
Communications Director
Michigan Department of Environmental Cuaiity
517-284-6713
547-230-8006 cell
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