Re: The States: Mad Scientist Laboratories of Democracy
In short, there's no way the state is singlehandedly paying to replace Flint's entire water system.
Yep.
One of the big issues first is going to be the spending of money to investigate the extent of the damage. How many miles of water main need to be immediately replaced. How many miles could be "re-lined" and left in place. And how many miles just need to be treated, flushed, and they're good to go. Don't forget, sewer lines would need to be replaced or re-lined also, because the tainted water has now touched those pipes too, which lead back to Flint's water treatment plant and, once treated, re-circulated into the water system.
Second. When a baseline is established, you now have to place these project out to bid. Since every stick of bad water main and sewer pipe can't be replaced at once, you need to perform this work in stages, taking years to complete. Once article estimated the combined Flint Water and Sewer System to be 1600 miles of pipe, with a potential price tag of (minimum) $1.5 Billion (with a "B") to replace. Re-lining is potentially cheaper, but the work still needs to be done in phases. As an estimate, the City of Chicago replaces/rehabilitates 80 miles of water and sewer main a year. A project with Chicago's scope would take 20 years to replace every piece of pipe in Flint.
All the while, any service connection on private property *could* be pushed off to the home owner to take care of. Or, financial assistance made available by the city for the homeowner to take care of it themselves.
All this work also has to be done while continuing to serve these neighborhoods with water service with minimal shutdowns.
