Village DPW, water crew, and admin staff remain on the job
Locations of water shutoff valves were marked and have been hydro-vacuumed over the past two weeks to determine if there are lead and/or galvanized pipes in nearly 150 homes throughout town. Just a few more houses remain to be checked this week.
As “critical infrastructure workers,” Village of Manchester employees in water, wastewater treatment, public works, and their support staff will continue working through the COVID-19 crisis.
While the doors of Village Hall are locked to ensure social distancing, administrative staff, DPW, and water treatment workers will continue to work in the office. Phones are answered at 734.428.7877 from 8 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday, and every effort is made to maintain village services. You may take advantage of a drop box just outside the main doors for payments and other documents. Staff will also conduct business through email and encourage the use of the website, www.vil-manchester.org as a resource. The Washtenaw County Sheriff Office also will continue to provide necessary police protection to the Village as contracted.
What’s the DPW been doing with many of the water shutoff lines in the village over the past two weeks? The village has retained M&K Jetting & Televising, out of Jackson, to televise the water supply lines from the main to the shut-off, and from the shut-off to the residence, to determine if there are lead or galvanized water pipes in the system that, by recent state law, must be replaced.
“We have made detailed records through the years,” said Village Manager Jeff Wallace, “and we have gone through those and brought them up to date. We have made appointments with people in their homes, to identify the service leads in that way. We got down to about 150 houses that we didn’t know about and the best way to solve that was to hydro-vac down to the service lead.”
This process is less intrusive, Wallace added, than digging up driveways, yards, and sidewalks, and has an added advantage of not hitting any other utilities along the way. “It’s efficient, and has the least disruption to people’s property,” he said.
The resulting small holes are being backfilled with sand which meets current standards. Some “surprises” along the way was digging up some of the oldest service leads, when the crews discovered rocks and all kinds of unauthorized materials that had been used in the past. Wallace says that overall, the process has gone very smoothly, and will be completed with just one more day of work as the weather cooperates.
It is important to note that DPW crews will be coming around, as weather conditions improve, to fix any yards that have been damaged with black dirt and seed.
“The next step will be to review and get the records updated,” Wallace continued. “After this is done we will be sending a letter to residents that have either a galvanized or lead line from the shut off to their house or from the water main to the shut off. We have been looking at budget options on how we will start a replacement program that will begin in 2021; the State of Michigan requires replacement over the next 20 years.”
He added that the village will seek out state or federal financing or grants to help in the budgeting process, and will continue to look as they budget for the 2021 year, even if future adjustments need to be made. Ultimately, the money to pay for the extended project will come from users as the water fund is considered an “Enterprise” Fund and must be self-sustaining.
Within the next month the village is mandated by state law, to inform users who have been discovered to have a galvanized or lead line. “Those users may want to consider having a plumber assess the plumbing in their house,” Wallace noted. “But we have 20 years to start replacing those lines, not only from the main to the shutoff, but from the shutoff to the meter.”
That means, he added, that the village only has to do about five percent of the mandated updates each year—but that can be complicated by plans for street work, water and sewer updates, and other Capital Improvement plans.
The good news in all of this is that the village has been doing mandated random in-home sampling testing throughout the village on a regular basis, for the past 20+ years. “It’s in our consumer confidence report that we mail out to everyone, publish in the newspaper, and it is on our website,” Wallace explained. “We have always been well under the state level for lead in our water system.”
Anyone with questions regarding the new requirements and how they will be met is welcome to call the Village office at the number above.
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