Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Water Infrastructure Failures topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Engineer urges Aiken to address high water-main break rate, says city declined free consultant help
Summary
An engineer told council the city's water-main break rate is far above the national average and said the city declined his free technical assistance and grant pursuit; he requested a workshop to correct information he says staff presented at a prior meeting.
At the public-comment portion of the March 10 meeting, Dr. Robert Lashear of Lashear Engineering LLC told the Aiken City Council he has repeatedly offered free consulting to reduce water-main breaks and to pursue grant funding, but that city staff declined his most recent offer.
Lashear said city staff previously told the council that half of last year's water-main breaks were caused by contractors digging and that the city's failure rate is "estimated at more than 22 times the national average." He said the other breaks were primarily caused by water hammers from pump and valve operations. Lashear said city staff refused to provide a concise history of breaks and costs and that a February council agenda request for $625,000 to hire contractors demonstrated the scale of the problem.
"As a world class water hammer and water main break expert, I have repeatedly offered my services without cost to Aiken," Lashear said. He said the city labeled his offers as "salesman" statements and that city staff declined a follow-up workshop to correct what he called false statements about his prior presentations. Mayor Milner, Lashear said, agreed to speak with him in March.
Lashear called for transparency and for the council to accept the free consulting and grant-pursuit assistance he offered. The transcript records his public comment but does not show any immediate council action in response.
