Mleczko: Troubling Similarities Between Grosse Pointe Park’s Water Plant And Flint

The photo shows the exact location where the water intake pumps would be installed by Grosse Pointe Park for their new water plant. (Photo by Lorraine Mleczko)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The writer is a former Detroit News reporter and former head of the Detroit Newspaper Guild. He has been a resident of Grosse Pointe Park for 36 years.

By Lou Mleczko

In a New York Times column last month, Economist Paul Krugman said the disastrous water quality scandal engulfing the city of Flint would never have occurred in a more affluent community like Grosse Pointe.

Guess again.

Grosse Pointe Park is nearing final approval from the embattled Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) to switch its source of tap water from the City of Detroit system to an independent water treatment plant built and operated by the prosperous suburb, which borders the city of Detroit.

Last November, Park officials submitted a $250,000 engineering and construction study to the MDEQ to build a water plant estimated to cost at least $15 million. Those plans, which have already been approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, would be to build a water plant in that community’s Windmill Pointe Park adjacent to the Detroit River and polluted Fox Creek.

The Park Council has temporarily put its MDEQ application on hold while it conducts still one last engineering review of its water treatment plans.

Most observers consider MDEQ approval a formality, and if approved later this year by the Park Council, the new system would end a decades-long practice of the suburb buying its drinking water from Detroit. The city would then be exposing its 11,300 residents to a new water source with an uncertain level of quality. Park officials have grudgingly admitted that the quality of Detroit water is excellent and far exceeds MDEQ and EPA requirements.

Not A New Idea

Grosse Pointe Park has toyed with the idea of running its own water plant for almost a decade as Council members have complained for years about the steadily rising cost of Detroit’s water.

They proceeded with the engineering/construction study convinced that they could build and operate a water plant for less money than what they currently pay for water processed and pumped from Water Works Park, located only a few miles west of the suburb.

But the Park Council has never done  a formal cost/benefit analysis, and in a review of Grosse Pointe Park audits, I discovered that less than 20% of customer billings are for Detroit water. The remaining 80% of water bill charges come from items that would not decrease such as sewage treatment by Detroit (24.3%), operation and maintenance (11.8%), general administration (13.2%, depreciation (9.5%) and operating income (25.6% which includes net profits).

A big unknown is what it would cost Park residents to own and operate its own plant, including issuance of new revenue bonds to pay for the construction of the facility. Those costs could be as high, or higher, than what the Park currently pays Detroit for its treated water.

Another worry is the proposed plant would draw Detroit River water at the seawall just a few feet from where the polluted Fox Creek discharges into the river. Park officials said MDEQ considered that issue eight years ago and still granted an earlier water permit (2008). To date, there has been no comprehensive water quality analysis of  Fox Creek done.

A third concern is whether the new facility would increase water main pressures that could result in ruptured pipes, or dislodged lead and other contaminants that could be released into the drinking water like Flint’s ill-fated switch. 

Grosse Pointe Park’s water mains and pipes are as old or older than Flint’s system. Instead of spending millions on an unneeded water treatment plant, the Park Council should be spending its money studying the condition of these pipe lines, most of which will soon need to be replaced.

Park residents will soon find out if its political leaders are following Flint’s reckless experiment in switching to a questionable source of fresh water.