Judge finds city of Flint in contempt for slow action on replacing lead water lines
Source: Detroit Free Press
Published 2:10 p.m. ET Mar. 13, 2024 | Updated 5:04 p.m. ET Mar. 13, 2024
LANSING — A federal judge has found the city of Flint in contempt of court for missing deadlines for lead water line replacement and related work in the aftermath of the Flint water crisis. U.S. District Judge David Lawson found the city in civil contempt for violating a February 2023 court order. The order arose from a 2017 settlement of the lawsuit under which the city pledged to replace lead pipes that carry drinking water.
The city had agreed to replace the pipes by early 2020, but still has not completed that work, according to a news release Wednesday from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Also, homeowners are waiting, in some cases for years, for the city to repair property damage such as damaged curbs, sidewalks and lawns caused by the lead line replacement, the NRDC said.
“The city has failed to abide by the court’s orders in several respects, and ... it has no good reason for its failures,” Lawson wrote in an order issued late Tuesday.
Though lead lines have been replaced at tens of thousands of homes, the city still hasn't completed outreach to several dozen homes and a recent survey showed that at least 275 still had lead service lines, though many of those may have declined to participate in the replacement program. Also, at least 2,000 homes have damaged curbs, sidewalks or lawns from the replacement work and the city has repeatedly failed to comply with court-ordered reporting requirements to document all the work it has completed, according to filings in the case.
Read more: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2024/03/13/judge-flint-water-line-replacement/72957810007/
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