The Daily Populous Sunday July 13rd, 2025 morning edition
Authored by lansingcitypulse.com and submitted by Edm_vanhalen1981

Posted Wednesday, July 2, 2025 4:52 pm

Lead pipes | Environmental Protection Agency photo

Nearly a decade after high levels of lead were first detected in the City of Flint’s drinking water, the state of Michigan has submitted a progress report to a federal court marking the completion of its lead line replacement program.

On Tuesday, the Natural Resources Defense Council, who secured a settlement with the city and the state in 2017 to replace all of Flint’s lead lines, acknowledged that more than eight years later, the state had replaced nearly 11,000 pipes and restored more than 28,000 properties.

In 2014, the city switched its water supply from water piped in from Detroit to the Flint River, a decision made by emergency managers appointed by then-Gov. Rick Snyder as a cost-saving move. Due to inadequate treatment of the water, corroding pipes leached lead into thousands of homes as residents raised concerns about discolored, foul-smelling and tasting water.

Bonsitu Kitaba, the interim legal director of the ACLU of Michigan, who worked with the city council to secure the settlement, credited the citizens of Flint for Tuesday’s milestone, emphasizing the efforts residents made to ensure the city and the state fulfilled their obligations.

“Residents of Flint deserve – and have always deserved – access to clean, safe drinking water and property repairs, full stop. While we know that this is not a resolution for all the harms caused to the people of Flint from the water crisis, we celebrate this long-awaited win alongside you. We are committed to our partnership and the work ahead,” Kitaba said.

While the initial deadline for the settlement was set for 2020, Flint residents repeatedly found themselves back in court, with federal judge David M. Lawson in 2024 declaring Flint in contempt of a previous court order requiring the city to hit certain milestones in replacing lead pipes.

However, the state’s final progress report does not mark the end of the city’s obligations, as several hundreds of pipes remain in vacant homes and some residents have declined to have their pipes tested or replaced.

During a celebration in May marking the completion of the program, Kitaba noted that the city is still required to replace all lead lines in the coming years. Flint has also committed to replacing any remaining lead lines this year, with Kitaba encouraging residents with lead lines to call 810-410-1133, or email GetTheLeadOut@cityofflint.com.

The council stressed there is no safe level of lead exposure.

Pastor Allen Overton of Concerned Pastors for Social Action cheered his fellow community members, crediting their work to hold elected leaders accountable as the reason behind Tuesday’s milestone.

“Thanks to the persistence of the people of Flint and our partners, we are finally at the end of the lead pipe replacement project. While this milestone is not all the justice our community deserves, it is a huge achievement,” Overton said.

Truesoldier00 on July 12nd, 2025 at 13:18 UTC »

ITT people don’t understand the pace of construction. You can’t just start replacing pipes on a scale this big just by starting to dig a whole in the ground and dropping pipes. I work as a project manager for a City. We had someone whose basement was flooding due to our storm sewer being collapsed along a 100m road. So it was considered an emergency and needed to be fixed asap.

First i need to source a design consultant (3 weeks on a rush, usually takes 6-8). Then they do background investigations (geo-technical, site survey, review background drawings) (2-3 months). Then design the road (2 months). Then I can use the drawings they create to source a contractor (2 months). It’s now been 8 months and I haven’t put a shovel in the ground. Finally I source a contractor and they get the work done over the next 2/3 months. So we’re almost at a year from discovering the issue. For one block. Let alone an entire city’s worth of watermains to replace.

FloppyCorgi on July 12nd, 2025 at 02:27 UTC »

I'm glad, but it never should have taken this long.

Weightmonster on July 12nd, 2025 at 02:25 UTC »

And they got that Alligator Alcatraz place up and running in weeks?