Federal judge asked to hold Flint in contempt over lead pipe program delays

A coalition of community activists and national advocacy organizations are asking a federal judge in Michigan to hold the city of Flint in contempt after the municipality reportedly missed a series of recent deadlines tied to the city’s lead pipeline replacement program.

Lawyers for the Natural Resources Defense Council and the American Civil Liberties Union filed the motion Friday as part of a longstanding lawsuit against the city on behalf of the Concerned Pastors for Social Action and Flint resident Melissa Mays asking the court to fine the city $500 a day until it is brought into compliance with the latest round of federal court mandates.

The court filing marks the latest effort by activists to enforce a 2017 settlement agreement that required Flint to carry out a lead service line replacement program to help remedy the city’s contaminated water crisis, which began nearly a decade ago after a botched water supply switch corroded the city’s pipes and left thousands of residents exposed to toxic levels of lead and other contaminants. 

“The City of Flint’s ongoing failures to finish the job it committed to in 2017 are causing new harms to the Flint community,” NRDC senior attorney Sarah Tallman said in a statement Friday.

Flint representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Initially, the city was given a January 2020 deadline to complete the program, which involves excavating and replacing roughly 28,000 service lines, along with additional requirements such as restoration work at properties where the lines are replaced.

Flint failed to replace all the pipes by that deadline and has since missed two more deadlines. Beyond failing to replace all the service lines, Flint has failed to keep accurate records of its work and neglected to provide the groups with monthly progress reports, according to court records.

“We’re approaching a decade without safe drinking water in Flint; that’s a lifetime for many of Flint’s children,” said Mays, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.  “It’s unacceptable that, even after we’ve come back to court several times and won, our officials are failing to finish the job.”

After Flint passed another deadline in September 2022, the plaintiffs asked U.S. District Judge David Lawton to step in and compel the city to fulfill its promise to replace lead service lines despite repeated extensions of its deadline.

Lawton sided with the plaintiffs and set new milestones for the city in a February court order.

In addition to service line replacement mandates, the recent court order also issued a series of stipulations related to the property restoration work. Lawton had set a May 1 deadline for Flint to determine which homes still require property restoration.

The order also required the city to “provide timely, accurate, and complete monthly restoration reporting, and conduct outreach to Flint residents to residents to get permission to excavate and replace their service lines."

According to the court filing, the city began violating the court order “almost immediately” after it was entered by the judge in February.

The plaintiffs say Flint missed the May 1 deadline for the restoration work stipulations “by a wide margin.” They also accuse Flint of preventing the plaintiffs from evaluating the city’s progress.

“Thousands of residents have waited — some for years — for the city to fix their torn-up lawns or broken sidewalks,” Tallman said. “We will continue to hold the city accountable until every Flint resident gets the benefits guaranteed to them.”

The city has pinned the delays on the pandemic and has said the remaining lead lines are in homes that have been difficult to access for various reasons.