From Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; blue circle; Great Lakes now on Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impacts of climate change, pollution and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. All works can be found HERE.
- Flint has agreed to replace all lead pipes by 2020 but has repeatedly missed deadlines
- About 1,000 homes in Flint have yet to have their pipes tested for lead, and thousands more may have damage from previous work
- A federal judge gave the city until August 1 to finish the work
A federal judge has given the city of Flint until August 1 to complete a lead line replacement job that has dragged on three years beyond the original deadline.
In an order issued Friday, U.S. District Court Judge David M. Lawson gave city officials until May to determine which yards of Flint residents are still destroyed from previous lead-pipe replacement work. The city then has to restore cracked sidewalks and potholed yards.
The order was issued about two weeks after Bridge Michigan reported that many residents still have gaping holes in their yards or missing chunks on their sidewalks after work teams dug up their utility line and then failed to clean up the mess.
If the city deems a courtyard already restored, they must leave a door hanger in the resident’s home, alerting the resident that the city officials believe their job is done. This is to give residents the opportunity to contest these findings if they disagree.
The ruling stems from an agreement Flint and the state reached in 2017 with Flint residents and advocacy groups (Concerned Pastors for Social Action, Flint’s Melissa Mays, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the ACLU of Michigan) in the wake of the Flint water crisis contributed to lead contamination of city drinking water by a federally appointed emergency manager.
That 2017 settlement requires the city to excavate some 31,500 utility lines that bring city water to residents’ homes. The city agreed to replace lines that could contain lead by January 2020.
But city officials have repeatedly failed to meet deadlines or provide plaintiffs with required progress reports on the $97 million effort. The plaintiffs have been in court five times and have asked a judge to enforce the terms of the settlement.
Flint resident Melissa Mays, a plaintiff in the lawsuit who said her garden is among those still awaiting restoration, slammed the city in a statement Tuesday for taking six years and counting to complete work , which other cities would have done much more quickly.
“And the work that the city actually did was disorganized and doesn’t inspire confidence among Flint residents,” Mays said. “We didn’t have to go to federal court a fifth time to get the city to fulfill what it promised.”
City officials have attributed the delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, supply shortages and unreliable contractors to work stoppages.
Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley told Bridge earlier this month that contractor turnover has caused recordkeeping issues that have taken time to resolve.
In a statement Tuesday, Flint City attorney William Kim said the city is “on track” to meet the new August deadline.
“We are committed to advancing the health and safety of Flint residents,” Kim said.
After plaintiffs filed the latest motion for a court order, city officials agreed to meet new deadlines to excavate remaining pipes and figure out which yards still need to be restored. But the city denied the plaintiffs’ request to put notice hangers on residents’ doors, arguing that the settlement did not require it.
Lawson’s order, however, urges the city to take the step.
“The city got itself into this position through its mismanagement of service line replacements,” Lawson wrote. “It grossly exaggerated the ‘burden’ that would be imposed by the inspection and notification procedures proposed by the plaintiffs, and these remedies are well within the means at the court’s disposal to enforce the settlement agreement, which it has for almost monitored for five years.”
Plaintiffs estimate that more than a thousand homes still require excavation to determine if they are connected to lead service lines, and thousands more may still need yard or sidewalk repairs.
Local activists see the pipe replacement effort as one of the final steps in Flint’s recovery from the water crisis that began in 2014. At the time, state officials approved a cost-cutting conversion of Flint’s drinking water supply from Detroit’s system to the caustic Flint River without requiring treatment to prevent lead from leaching from aging lead pipes.
The city switched back in October 2015, but health experts are advising Flint residents to drink only filtered water until lead-pipe replacement efforts are complete.
In a statement Tuesday, Natural Resources Defense Council Attorney Addie Rolnick called the court order “a victory,” but added that “Flint residents will not get the justice they deserve until every resident … sees.” , how his lead pipe will be replaced and his property repaired.”
Learn more about Great Lakes Now:
The jury cannot reach a verdict in the Engineers’ Flint Water Trial
Court ends Flint water allegations against ex-governor and others
Featured Image: Efforts to remove all lead service lines from Flint were originally scheduled to end in 2020 but have been delayed for years. (photo of the bridge file)
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