The mayor of Flint has sent a letter to President Obama’s Director of Intergovernmental Affairs requesting the participation of the White House and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a City of Flint Technical Advisory Water Committee.
Flint is forming both a water committee and a technical committee within its community to address the city’s concern for the safety of its drinking water.
M Live reports on the contents of the letter:
“I welcome any technical assistance you are able to coordinate, including expertise on water quality and public health, best practices with water treatment and improving distribution system infrastructure,” the letter says.
Walling said Monday that he’s been working with a U.S. EPA official about the potential for federal assistance with Flint’s water system and is hopeful the city can get some help from Washington.
“It’s critical that the federal, state and local governments are all on the same page and that we’re taking full advantage of everyone’s expertise and experience,” Walling said. “To date, the federal expertise has not been brought to the table.”
Water has become a top issue in the city since customers received notice that Flint was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act because of the high level of total trihalomethanes (TTHM) in the water supply in 2014.”
Even though the water has been declared safe, water officials struggled during the summer, and residents are still complaining about their water’s taste, smell, and appearance – problems that have been blamed on aging infrastructure and hundreds of water main breaks.
It is a recurring supply problem that needs to be addressed, and hopefully, President Obama’s Administration can coordinate appropriate Federal expertise to assist Flint in resolving these issues.
Inframanage.com observes that Flint appears to be exhibiting some of the classic symptoms associated with utility infrastructure that is nearing the end of its life.
In addition to resolving the immediate symptoms, Flint would be well advised to undertake infrastructure asset management planning and analysis to develop a comprehensive long-term plan to manage the lifecycle of its assets.
There are many infrastructure management resources available online for use as a reference and guide.
Read more Flint Michigan Water Crisis articles:
PHOTO CREDIT: Beach-Garland Street – Flint River Bridge by Sarah Razak via Flickr Creative Commons License.
[…] Several weeks ago Inframanage.com blogged on the water contamination situation in Flint, Michigan. […]