News12 Flint (2024)

FAQs

What is the status of the Flint Water Settlement? ›

On May 22, 2024, Judge Levy granted final approval to the $8 million settlement against LAN for failing to warn Flint residents of the likelihood of lead contamination in their drinking water.

After $400 million in state and federal spending, Flint has secured a clean water source, distributed filters to all who want them, and laid modern, safe, copper pipes to nearly every home in the city.

Flint water quality update

Since July 2016, the city of Flint's water system has met state and federal standards for lead in drinking water for 14 consecutive monitoring periods. The latest six-month round of monitoring shows Flint's 90th percentile at 1 parts per billion (ppb), below the requirement of 15 ppb.

To execute this solution, experts estimated at least 1.5 billion in cost to replace all of the pipes, making this solution also the most expensive one. Digging all the pipes up and replacing them is really the only solution other than moving all of the citizens out of Flint.

LANSING, Mich. — Residents of Flint, Michigan, still haven't seen a penny from a $626.25 million legal settlement almost a decade after revelations their drinking water was poisoned by lead touched off a national outcry.

Claims submitted between March 8, 2023, and March 7, 2024, will be assessed, and eligible payments will be processed after March 7, 2024. All claims for Specified Injuries compensation will be processed after March 7, 2024.

Current Water Quality Results

This result marks seven-and-a-half consecutive years that the city's water has met the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act. More information on the Lead and Copper Rule monitoring is available from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE).

However, there are some bright spots. As of January 2022, Flint officially marked its sixth year in a row of being in compliance with water standards as they pertain to the federal Lead and Copper Rule, a public health measure developed by the EPA to improve lead sampling.

The 2017 settlement agreement mandated that Flint finish replacing lead service lines and restoring residents' properties by January 2020. The deadline to finish the required excavations and pipe replacements was later extended to September 30, 2022, due to the COVID pandemic.

Flint and Genesee County ranked as 131st best place to live and 111th best place to retire in the country. The area also ranked sixth best in Michigan, but also 24th among the Most Dangerous Places. “It is a positive thing for our city to have made the list," said Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley.

Is Flint still under a water advisory? ›

UPDATE: July 11, 2023, 2:00 PM – BOIL FILTERED WATER ADVISORY IS NOW LIFTED. The boil filtered water advisory has been lifted for the City of Flint. Bacterial testing has confirmed that water quality meets all state and federal standards.

In June 2016, more than two years after the switch to Flint River water and eight months after the return to DWSD water, the EPA announced that water in Flint was once again safe to drink, provided that a National Science Foundation-approved filter was used to remove the remaining traces of lead.

The state of Michigan agreed in 2020 to pay $600 million for its role in what came to be known as the Flint water crisis, and the city of Flint settled for $20 million in the same massive lawsuit.

There were high levels of lead and other contaminants in the city's tap water because of a series of mistakes made when the city changed the source of its drinking water. A decade later, Flint's water system has been largely repaired, but fixing the city's image remains a work in progress.

The city finished service line replacements required by the settlement last week. But there are still about 1,900 homes in need of repairs after lawns, sidewalks and driveways were damaged during past pipe replacements. If granted permission to take over, the state has vowed to finish repairs by August 2025.

The $350 charge is in the "middle range" compared to other Genesee County communities, his office said. But Hanson said Flint's base rate for water bills is higher than other communities.

After a successful lawsuit, the final cost to fix the Flint water crisis is an estimated $626 million, as approved and granted by the presiding judge.

The updated draft administrative consent order outlines how the City of Flint will continue working to upgrade its water infrastructure to meet the needs identified by EGLE in August 2017. The ACO allows the City of Flint to have a voice in the legal process.