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Little Rock notebook

Water utility plans

lead-pipe removal

Central Arkansas Water will replace all of its lead service pipes this year.

After the water crisis in Flint, Mich., the Little Rock-based water utility checked to see if it still had any lead service lines. So far, it has found about 140.

There are still about 3,000 lines to inspect, and the utility is estimating that it will have to replace up to 250 lead lines.

"Other cities are looking at tens of thousands of these lines," utility Chief Executive Officer Tad Bohannon said. "Detroit has 100,000 -- [that's] a figure I heard earlier today."

Central Arkansas Water tests its water regularly and has never reported lead or copper levels that aren't in compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency's lead and copper rules. Some of the places where lead lines were found are also places where water samples are taken.

"The [Arkansas] Health Department doesn't require us to go in and replace these lines," Bohannon said. "We're just trying to be proactive because we want to maintain that customer confidence in the water we are providing to them."

Any customer whose services lines will be replaced will receive a letter and phone call or visit from a utility representative. After replacing the service line, the utility will flush out the pipes and then test the water monthly for three months.

Airmen musicians

hold free concert

The U.S. Air Force Concert Band will play a free concert today in the city's downtown River Market District.

The band will perform from 3-5 p.m. at the First Security Amphitheater.

The event is a partnership between the city, the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.

The U.S. Air Force Concert Band began in 1941 with three musicians. It is now internationally known and has 179 members. Col. Gerald Donohue of the Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville will introduce the band.

UA school to hold

two book-signings

The University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service is hosting two book-signings this week.

On Monday at 6 p.m., Dan Zak will discuss his work, Almighty: Courage, Resistance, and Existential Peril in the Nuclear Age in Sturgis Hall at 1200 President Clinton Ave.

Zak is a general assignment feature reporter for The Washington Post.

"Part historical adventure, part courtroom drama, part moral thriller, Almighty reshapes the accepted narratives surrounding nuclear weapons and shows that our greatest modern-day threat remains a power we discovered long ago," a news release from the school said.

On Tuesday, Baz Dreisinger will be at Sturgis Hall at noon to talk about his book, Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World.

Dreisinger is a professor, journalist and founder of the Prison-to-College Pipeline.

His book tells the stories of incarcerated people and those who imprisoned them, "creating a jarring, poignant view of a world to which most are denied access, and a re-thinking of one of America's most far-reaching global exports: the modern prison complex," a news release said.

Metro on 09/17/2017

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