City passes ordinance to purchase truck for water line lead testing
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By Michelle Dillon
Staff Reporter
Marietta City Council moved forward Thursday evening with plans to test city water lines for lead.
During the council meeting Thursday, council members passed three ordinances related to buying a hydro-vac truck to conduct testing on water lines for the presence of lead.
Ordinances 48 (24-25), 49 (24-25) and 50 (24-24) were read for the first time and then council unanimously voted to suspend rules and not conduct a second or third reading of the ordinances. Council then unanimously passed all three ordinances.
Ordinance 48 (24-25) allows the director of public safety and service to enter into a contract for $489,500 with Brown Equipment Company of Evansville, Ind., to buy a 2023 Sewer-HX-9-TA hydro-vac truck to check city water lines for the existence of lead. The ordinance declares the existence of a real and present emergency arising in connection to the operation and maintenance of the water department as a result of needing materials for the water line lead testing and the possible replacement of lines due to lead to prevent an unhealthy condition that may detrimentally affect Marietta citizens. It also allows the contract to be entered into without any formal bidding, advertising for bids or quality based bid selection.
Ordinance 49 (24-25) appropriates $489,500 to the water fund for water transmission/distribution equipment.
Ordinance 50 (24-25) allows the director of public safety and service to enter into a change of scope with the Ohio EPA for $400,00 it originally received in principal forgiveness loan funds in December 2022. The funds were to be used to hire a consultant for $100,000 to develop a program to complete an inventory of water lines and to develop design standards and procedures for lead water line replacement and for $300,000 for a contract with a company for subsurface utility excavations with a hydro excavation truck to check water lines for lead.
The ordinance said the city originally entered into a contract for the subsurface utility excavations with F. H. Paschen, S.N. Nielson & Associates LLC. Ward Two Councilman Bret Allphin said that the Paschen & Nielsen responded to the $300,000 bid for checking water lines for lead but the per cost unit ended up being higher than they originally thought. He said it was originally $3,000 per unit.
Marietta City Law Director Paul G. Bertram III said it ended up being $6,000 per unit. The city terminated the contract with Paschen and Nielsen on April 1 due to the pricing disagreement and because the firm had not started any work on the project, according to ordinance 50 (24-25).
Allphin said he does not know how much lead is in Marietta's water lines but "we know that lead lines in purchases became illegal, I think it was 1986, so anything that was before 1986 has the possibility to have something lead out there."
He also said that many water lines in Marietta were installed before 1986.
Allphin said they will be purchasing the hyrdo-vac truck to do the work of checking the water lines themselves for lead. He said city staff feels they can do double the testing by owning the truck themselves and it will be paid for with the $300,000 left over from the Ohio EPA funds and the $189,500 that was appropriated into the water fund.
At-Large Councilman Ben Rutherford pointed out the truck "also then performs other tasks aside from just testing."
Bertram said the city has "already lost eight months, essentially" and the water line survey "has to be done by Oct. 16.
Because of this the city will start as soon as possible, Rutherford said.
He said that hopefully "we should be able to start that process within a month."
Michelle Dillon can be reached at
mdillon@newsandsentinel.com