FLINT, MI -- Contractors were more interested in the bottom line than finding lead pipes in Flint following the water crisis, meeting minutes obtained by MLive-The Flint Journal suggest.
“Essentially the contractors only want to focus on properties where they will make the most money and are most convenient for them to work,” Darby Neidig, a former program manager for AECOM, said at a meeting between his company and the city on Oct. 4, according to city documents.
AECOM employees met frequently with city officials between January and November 2018 to provide updates on the FAST Start service line replacement program. MLive-The Flint Journal acquired minutes -- written transcripts of topics discussed at the meetings -- via the Freedom of Information Act.
The minutes show city officials strategized at length with the public relations firm Van Dyke Horn about their communications plan in 2018. The lead pipe replacement program took center stage at the meetings, however.
City officials and all but one service line contractor did not respond to MLive’s requests for comment for this story. AECOM directed all questions to the city because the company no longer oversees FAST Start.
Goyette Mechanical Program Manager, Joe Parks, stated his company, which was contracted to replace service lines, only excavated addresses that were assigned to them by AECOM.
AECOM’s $6.1 million contract to oversee FAST Start began in December 2017. During its time, the company oversaw the exploration of 11,657 pipes and found 1,738 homes with lead service lines.
To date, the city has found and replaced lead lines at 7,966 addresses.
Martha Brown Custom Builders was contracted to do hydrovac inspections for $2 million and began work on April 26, minutes from May 7 show. Brown used hyrdovac trucks, a high-pressurized water and vacuum system, to remove dirt and document pipe composition. Addresses with lead lines were relayed back to service line contractors for replacement.
City records and hydrovac inspections were the main resources used by FAST Start to assign homes for service line replacements, according to Flint’s Director of Public Works Rob Bincsik at an AECOM community forum.
A majority of the pipes Brown identified were made of copper, May 31 meeting minutes stated. AECOM officials stated 93 percent of the pipes they were uncovering were copper-to-copper in some areas, May 17 meeting minutes show.
“The issue is that there is more copper-to-copper than we originally thought there would be,” Neidig stated at a May 31 meeting. “Which is bad for the SLR (service line replacement) contractors but good for the residents of Flint.”
Contractors were demanding more work than Brown was finding, however, the minutes show. To address the contractors’ complaints, former AECOM program manager Alan Wong suggested the city change how the work was being done, according to May 24 minutes.
Rather than Brown green-lighting other contractors to dig up pipes after confirming they’re lead, contractors could just dig and identify service lines themselves, the minutes show.
Flint’s chief adviser for economic development, Aoine Gilcrest, stated in a May 31 meeting that he understands the state sees hydrovacing as a more economical option, but the MDEQ can’t dictate Flint is required to use hydrovac trucks.
“Mr. Gilcreast stated that whatever money isn’t used would be returned to the State. He also stated that the first responsibility for the City of Flint is to get the job done, not to save the state money,” May 31 meeting minutes state.
MDEQ officials previously said whatever money the city has left over could be reallocated for other water-related infrastructure or projects.
At a Flint Water Interagency Coordinating Committee Friday, June 15, Mayor Karen Weaver announced the city would no longer use hydrovac trucks because they weren’t identifying water service lines thoroughly. The rate for finding and replacing lead service lines in Flint dropped from 80 percent to 14 percent by the end of 2018.
This heat map shows were lead lines are historically known and statistically predicted to be in the city of Flint. It was created using information from the city, researchers and a predictive computer model that identifies where hazardous lines are as of August 2018.
The state’s attorney general’s office said it was withholding reimbursement for Flint’s water service line replacement work in a dispute with the city over the cost of performing full, traditional excavations at every home, including those with copper lines in a Nov. 1 letter last year. But Hughey Newsome, Flint’s chief financial officer, announced on Feb. 15 that the state agreed to to reimburse the $6.6 million it was withholding for service line work.
Who will head up the pipe replacement program in 2019 remains unclear. At the beginning of the year, AECOM’s contract wasn’t extended. Resolutions to contract AECOM to manage FAST Start in 2019 were voted down twice by City Council. Sealed bids for managing FAST Start were due Feb. 21 and contracts can be awarded between March 5 and 12, according to the Flint’s request for proposal.
Modifications made in the Concerned Pastors for Social Change Settlement must be followed by the next company overseeing FAST Start. The city has agreed to prioritize remaining water service line replacements based on which homes are most likely to have lead or galvanized steel pipes, returning to an approach it successfully used before 2018.
City Council became the last party to agree to the modification of the settlement agreement late Monday, Feb. 11, after two closed-doors meetings with city attorneys.
Flint’s announcement did not say whether the state will continue to pay for full service line excavations in 2019. Candice Mushatt, a spokeswoman for the city, previously said she could not immediately comment on that question.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer hasn’t specifically said the state would continue to pay for the excavations, but she did say the state wouldn’t micromanage the recovery efforts in Flint.
“The goal is to make sure everyone has got their lead pipes replaced, and I know that’s moving forward in the city of Flint,” Whitmer said after a tour of the Mott Community College’s Regional Technology Center on Feb. 19. “My job is to make sure that we have accountability and ensure we are getting the job done.”