Ferndale approves lead service replacement, water main improvements in 2025

FERNDALE — The Ferndale City Council last month gave its approval to lead service line replacements and water main improvement projects.

At its Dec. 16 meeting, the council approved a contract extension with Gustafson HDD for $920,000 to conduct lead service line replacement work this year. “HDD” stands for “horizontal directional drilling.”

According to city documents, Ferndale is mandated to replace 100 lead service lines annually by the state’s Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy Department. That number is expected to increase an additional 5% to account for the replacement timeline changing from 2041 to 2037 due to Environmental Protection Agency rule changes. Ferndale estimates the number of lines replaced each year to be between 375 to 450.

The state adopted its Lead and Copper Rule in 2018, which includes annual water testing for lead and copper, identifying all service line materials, annually replacing 5% of lead service lines and establishing 100% replacement by 2041.

The replacement percentage is expected to increase an additional 5% to account for the replacement timeline changing from 2041 to 2037 due to Environmental Protection Agency rule changes. Ferndale estimates the number of lines replaced each year to be between 375 to 450.

“Just recently, (the state is) requiring 10-year 100% replacement by 2037,” Public Works Director James Jameson stated. “They require first and fifth draw sampling, which was one of the more stringent Michigan requirements. They require that every water system has a service line replacement plan. There’s increased communication, transparency and, most importantly, EPA is not providing funding along with all of these requirements.”

While he said he knows it’s not a productive comment, Council member Donnie Johnson stated that there is a mandate on cities, and that they’re being provided with “absolutely no resources” to implement it is “crap.”

“It’s just crappy that we’re being forced to push this down and have our residents bear the burden of this mandate with no assistance,” he said. “It’s nobody in this room’s fault, but it’s just ridiculous. This feels like an impossible problem to solve. It’s just a quagmire that this council is now stuck in.”

Council member Greg Pawlica concurred, stating that, while nothing against the city, he used Oak Park as an example of a newer community that has fewer homes with lead pipes.

“Their impact is much less than ours,” he said. “We’re a huge majority. We’re being penalized because we’re an older community asking to do the same as every other community like Oak Park, but their financial output is much less than what we have to do, and it sucks that we don’t get compensated in any way. And when we do more, then we’re penalized. We’re not allowed to get, you know, grants because we’re doing so great. Again, it’s not productive but it needs to be spoken.”

For the water main improvement work, the city approved a contract with DiPonio Contracting LLC in the estimated amount of $2,194,742.82.

Ferndale plans to replace three sections of water main on Brickley, Shevlin and Mahan streets between Chester and Lennox streets.

“In an effort to minimize the disruption and inconvenience to residents and businesses, the planned pavement improvements for these streets have been incorporated into this contract,” city documents state. “These water main segments were put in service approximately 80 years ago, have had multiple emergency breaks, and will continue to become increasingly unreliable.”

Jameson added the water main improvement program prioritizes and replaces water main sections that are likely to fail. He said Ferndale’s system has about 75 miles of water main total that serves 10,000 properties, 73% of which are older than 50 years old and 27% that has been replaced since 1990.

The water main work for 2025 is 3,302 linear feet. Officials hope that construction will begin in April with substantial completion in August and in full by September.