Deal to settle Flint water lawsuit brings $87M for new water lines

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan will allocate $87 million for the city of Flint to identify and replace at least 18,000 unsafe water lines by 2020 under a proposed settlement of a federal lawsuit that also provides the state with a road map to end free distribution of bottled water.

The proposed settlement also requires the state to pay $895,000 to the plaintiffs who brought the 2016 lawsuit, to cover their litigation costs.

U.S. District Judge David Lawson is to hold a hearing Tuesday to consider the agreement, which was the result of mediation. Lawson is expected to approve the agreement, subject to his oversight of its enforcement.

Concerned Pastors for Social Justice, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Michigan ACLU and Flint resident Melissa Mays don’t get the door-to-door delivery of bottled water they had been seeking in recent months. But the plaintiffs get a schedule for water line replacements while the state gets a schedule for weaning the city of Flint off the community resource stations where bottled water, water filters and filter replacement cartridges are now distributed free of charge.

Some — but not all — of the money the state allocates can come from funding approved by the federal government.

Flint’s drinking water became contaminated with lead in April 2014, when a state-appointed emergency manager, as a short-term cost-cutting measure, switched the city’s drinking water supply from Lake Huron water treated in Detroit to Flint River water treated at the Flint Water Treatment Plant. The Department of Environmental Quality has acknowledged a mistake in failing to require the use of corrosion control chemicals as part of the treatment process. Corrosive water caused lead to leach from joints, pipes and fixtures, causing a spike in toxic lead levels in the blood of Flint children and other residents.

Flint switched back to Detroit water in October 2015, but some risk remains because of damage to the city’s water distribution infrastructure.

RYAN GARZA/DETROIT FREE PRESS FILE PHOTOGRAPH Flint, Mich., resident Darryl Wilson, 46, empties a case of bottled water into a large pan on the stove top to heat up, allowing him to wash dishes, at his home on Flint’s north side on Feb. 18, 2016.