Free Press Resurrects DWSD Against KWA

Detroit Free Press - Have you been off on another planet the last five years? No, more likely you’re playing word games with an ulterior motive.

In today’s (6-12-16) Free Press (“Official: Flint will 'lose everything’…“) you wrote:

“While those punishing terms appear to make a Flint default unlikely, whether Flint hooks up with the new KWA pipeline to Lake Huron or opts to continue receiving treated Lake Huron water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, as it does now, remains a live issue.” (Emphasis added.)  

As you know very well, Flint presently gets water from the regional successor to DWSD, the Great Lakes Water Authority. Your misstatement lingers until a correction at the bottom of the piece, which many readers won’t reach.

I suspect the Free Press is surreptitiously advancing the idea that an abused, downtrodden Flint should make common cause with an abused, downtrodden Detroit in part by resurrecting the DWSD brand, as if oblivious to GLWA and its Detroit retailer, DWSD-R.

I agree that an urban alliance against everything Republican, from Snyder to out-county Genesee, might be useful, but the means you’re employing could do more harm to Flint than to Republicans.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/06/11/official-flint-lose-everything-if-leaves-kwa/85662110/

Notes from Macomb County, KWA, GLWA

Macomb -- U.S. Representative Candice Miller, who is leaving Congress, has announced that she will run for election as Macomb County (Michigan) public works commissioner.

Karegnondi Water Authority pipe installation

“The upcoming campaign, between Miller and longtime Democratic incumbent Anthony Marrocco, a powerful force in Macomb County politics, shapes up as one of the oddest, most intriguing 2016 races in Michigan,” wrote Chad Selweski this week in Bridge Magazine.

“The public works commissioner oversees sewer systems, drain construction and maintenance, soil erosion and pollution controls, and anti-flooding measures. Whoever holds this office has the power to halt, or approve, residential subdivision planning and layout.”

“Annual overflows at the sewer facilities fluctuate with summertime precipitation, but during Marrocco’s 24-year tenure they have remained mostly at or above 200 million gallons of human waste discharged each year, including a recent summer, in 2011, in which 1.7 billion gallons were dumped into [Lake St. Clair].”

http://bridgemi.com/2016/05/why-on-earth-is-candice-miller-running-for-county-drain-commissioner/

KWA -- Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright says the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) has completed about 95% of the 80 mile fresh water pipeline from Lake Huron to Genesee County on schedule and under budget. Completion is expected in a few weeks.

Genesee County has been paying nearly 12% of the Detroit water authority’s total budget, although the county represents less than 2% of the total population served via Detroit.

A related but separate project, a county water treatment plant, is expected to be completed in a year.

Bill Petzold wrote about the KWA project in the Burton View on May 5, 2016:

http://burtonview.mihomepaper.com/news/2016-05-05/News/Karegnondi_project_on_schedule_under_budget.html

GLWA -- The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), which provides potable water, wastewater and stormwater services in the Detroit metropolitan area, announced recently that Freman Hendrix has been appointed to the GLWA board, the City of Detroit’s second representative, joining Gary Brown. Hendrix had been former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer’s chief of staff and deputy mayor. Hendrix succeeds Ike McKinnon, who retired.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/05/04/freman-hendrix-named-regional-water-authority-board/83940252/

Flint Water and KWA: Editorial Gets It Wrong

The Port Huron Times Herald published an editorial on March 28, 2016 about the Flint water tragedy, the related construction of a new pipeline by the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA), and the final report of the governor’s Task Force.The four concluding paragraphs of the editorial are:

The task force report calls the resulting lead poisoning a failure of the emergency manager process. The first failure was Snyder and his emergency managers not recognizing how irresponsibly, stunningly wasteful the Karegnondi Water Authority project is.

“State and local officials repeatedly characterized Genesee County and Flint leadership, including Flint’s emergency managers, as adamant in their promotion of KWA and desire for independence from DWSD,” the report says. Wouldn’t it have been better for Detroit’s emergency manager, who we would hope was on the same team as Flint’s manager and Snyder, to fix the unjust rates? (Emphasis added.)

It is difficult to imagine, but there was nobody who could determine whether spending $300 million on KWA’s pipeline parallel to Detroit’s was good fiscal policy. Self-interested parties told Flint and Genesee County it was a great idea. So they asked the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for an analysis.

MDEQ can’t do its own job. Asking it for economic analysis — even if conclusions are obvious — is irresponsible.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/03/28/flint-report-raises-good-questions-kwa-pipeline/82350182/

 

Fix the unjust DWSD water service rates? Who are they kidding? What the editorial overlooks is how irresponsibly, stunningly wasteful, incompetently managed, corrupt and looted DWSD, the heart of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s organized crime syndicate, was.

Reservations I’ve expressed about emergency management under Kevyn Orr aside, there wasn’t enough time (and absolutely no credit) before or during bankruptcy to fix DWSD, thus fix its rates. (All the King’s horses…)

In this context, the creation of KWA was, in my view, an act of desperation.

KWA Water: Less Expensive for Detroit's Northern Suburbs?

Last year, water service from the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department (DWSD) to the City of Flint was terminated in anticipation of Flint receiving tap water from the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA), a creation of Genesee County’s drain commissioner.  KWA’s pipeline from Lake Huron was then (and still is) under construction.  The project is expected to be completed by June 2016.

During the interim, Flint has been processing water from the Flint River.  Flint residents have complained about the taste, smell and appearance of the treated river water.  There have been occasions when state inspectors have found the water to be below federal standards.  The city contends that the water is safe to drink.

(A group of residents asked a federal judge in Flint to order the city to reconnect to the Detroit water system, but this past June the judge refused.)

KWA announced last month that it had awarded a contract to begin construction of a water treatment plant near the Genesee-Lapeer border to tie into the new pipeline.

With KWA’s water system scheduled to be completed in a year or less, the prospect of a new source of water for communities in northern Oakland and Macomb counties arises.  While DWSD’s successor, the regional Great Lakes Water Authority, continues to operate more, costly water treatment plants than it needs, the possibility of less expensive water from KWA will be tempting; and due diligence requires that the potential for savings be examined.

Flint Journal Applauds City, KWA

In an editorial April 13, 2014, the Flint Journal commends the decision of the City of Flint to leave the Detroit water system in favor of the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA).  Flint will treat local river water while awaiting completion of KWA's pipeline from Lake Huron.

Excerpts:

"Wisely, Flint ended the relationship with Detroit and accelerated a plan to treat Flint River water until the new Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline is finished."

"It was a bold move, one that was carefully vetted. And, it helps prepare the city for KWA, an agreement made with a true spirit of cooperation among the city, Genesee County and the state of Michigan."


"We understand that the Flint River usage and even conversion to KWA will not result in rate decreases — but we caution the city to exercise real sensitivity toward anything but the most modest of water rate increases, if any."

"For decades, Flint and Genesee County were virtually powerless to stop the city of Detroit from inflicting its largest water rate increases on local customers because of an agreement signed about 40 years ago."


"Let’s raise our drinking water glasses and cheers to a new direction for the next 40 years."

http://www.mlive.com/opinion/flint/index.ssf/2014/04/editorial_switch_to_flint_rive.html

What is KWA?

The Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) is the pet project of Jeff Wright, the Genesee County Water Resources Commissioner.  “Karegnondi” is a Petan (Wyandot) Indian word meaning “big lake,”  associated especially with Lake Huron, the source of KWA’s water.  

The Authority is intended to provide potable water to communities in Genesee County and points eastward in Lapeer and Sanilac counties, along the pipeline from Lake Huron.  It was created to replace service from the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department (DWSD) in those counties. 

Wright and other promoters expect savings to residents and businesses in the service area to be significant, encouraging economic growth.

Construction of the water intake facility on Lake Huron just began.  The intake contractor is  L. D'Agostini & Sons Inc.

The entire project is scheduled to be completed in 2016.  In the meantime, water will be drawn from the Flint River and treated or purchased from DWSD.