At Tuesday’s Amarillo City Council meeting, a great topic of discussion during public comments was about the infrastructure issues in the North Heights neighborhood, an area long considered by many to be neglected by the city.
Floyd Hartman, interim city manager, gave the city council an update on the infrastructure plans for the North Heights area of the city. He explained that one reason North Heights has such an infrastructure issue is that it was developed prior to modern state regulations for public improvement.
One of the major issues for infrastructure in the North Heights is the number of older two-inch pipes in the water system for the neighborhood that need to be replaced. Hartman has said that about $1 million of next year’s budget will be spent on replacing inadequate smaller piping. According to Hartman, the northeast interceptor being built for the city in the area will ease some of the regional issues, including complaints of foul-smelling water.
“What was presented was a history of the infrastructure of the area and how it came about, which I thought was important to explain what they are facing in the North Heights, which applies to many communities across the city which were developed prior to the subdivision laws that require public improvements,” he said.
Hartman said that the EPA’s updates to the lead and copper rule have the city having to identify the lines that need to be replaced and push the improvements that are required.
“There are a lot of challenges related to these improvements that not only impact Amarillo, but all areas of the nation,” he said. “It is going to take us a while and a lot of effort to do that, but we are committed to the requirements, especially in this effort to help the citizens.”
When asked about the comments from citizens at the meeting about issues in the North Heights, such as older lead and copper pipes and complaints of hydrogen sulfide levels in the pipes, Hartman said that these are issues being faced across the country with older systems.
“When you are talking about lead, copper, and hydrogen sulfide, any community is going to have a lot concerns,” he added. “Any city that had infrastructure before the lead and copper rule are going to require significant effort to meet the new requirements. It is an overly aggressive and very costly program, but we are glad to do it to protect the public.”
Hartman said that any area developed prior to the subdivision rules of the ’40s and ’50s has the challenge related to capacities, size and types of pipes.
“This is not unique to the North Heights; it is pervasive to the North Heights because the entire community was developed in the same time period,” he said. “There are five or six places in the city where we use Ferris, an iron product, to minimize the development of hydrogen sulfide. That has existed in this system for decades and exists in every sanitary system of any size in the country. Our tests do not indicate in the ambient air any hazard.”
Overall, from tests from the city, Hartman says that there have been no unsafe levels of hydrogen sulfide at the surface, but within the manholes, there are problematic levels.
“There are demanding needs within the system,” he said.
Mayor Cole Stanley weighed in on the city’s commitment to bring the North Heights infrastructure level up to par.
“The council gave staff good direction, telling staff that we would like to see a million dollars in the budget with a plan, and what would a million dollars do in making an impact on the neighborhood. We would hope that would be the largest impact that area would have ever seen. We need this built into our budget in August,” he said.
When asked about the amount of comment from the North Heights at the meeting about issues, he said that it was positive to bring issues to the forefront.
“This is a 60- to 70-year-old problem, and a lot of it was perpetrated when they did the development,” he said. “Back then, neighborhoods and lots were created with land area that did not have certain improvements. There has been a neglect to those, the maintenance of all our infrastructure, so we want to start in our oldest neighborhoods where we have the greatest need and prioritize them. Replacing these water lines is going to be big.”
Stanley said he believes this will make a big impact in these neighborhoods.
“With that community, is that any movement to getting the flow started is the greatest thing,” Stanley said. “Even if it’s a small amount that we can do in the way of the million dollars, it is still a step in the right direction and grows a lot of good faith.”