State grant provides for lead water service testing in Grosse Pointe City

GROSSE POINTE CITY — A sizable state grant is going to cover the cost of testing water service lines for lead in Grosse Pointe City.

City Manager Joseph Valentine told the Grosse Pointe City Council at a meeting Oct. 21 that in May, the city had received a Technical, Managerial and Financial Support for Lead Service Line Replacement Grant, or TMF LSLR, from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, or EGLE, for $598,941 to verify the presence of lead service lines. Valentine said based on the cost per test location from the city’s 2023 program, they had anticipated they would only be able to test about 620 of the 1,375 water service lines considered by EGLE’s definition to contain “unknown material” — and therefore, possibly lead.

However, when bids came in substantially lower than expected, Valentine said the city — after checking with EGLE to see if they could do this — was able to increase line testing to all 1,375 sites.

“This is a grant without a match, so this is all (being paid for with) state funds,” Valentine said.

Valentine said the low bidder, East Chicago-based National Industrial Maintenance Inc., was deemed qualified to do this work by the city’s engineers at Anderson, Eckstein and Westrick Inc. National Industrial Maintenance was one of five companies that submitted bids for the job.

“We have worked with National Industrial Maintenance Inc. on a similar program in the City of Grosse Pointe Woods on their Water Service Material Investigation Program and have found them well qualified for this type of work,” City Engineer Stephen Pangori, of AEW, wrote in an Oct. 9 letter to Valentine.

Testing — and then replacing — lead and galvanized water services is mandated by the state. As Pangori wrote, EGLE “amended their Lead and Copper Rules requiring all communities to replace every lead and galvanized water service within the water distribution system from the water main to at least 18 inches inside the building being served.” This must be completed by Dec. 31, 2041.

“So, ultimately, we would have to do all of them?” Mayor Sheila Tomkowiak asked.

Valentine acknowledged that was the case.

“This is a boon (then),” Tomkowiak said.

In 2023, the city tested 327 water services around the community based on a uniform random sampling. The state grant will enable the city to complete testing of possible lead lines.