Michigan Fights Court Order To Deliver Bottled Water To Flint Residents

"The state of Michigan on Thursday challenged a federal court order demanding that officials deliver bottled water to Flint residents who can’t easily pick up their own from distribution sites around the city, calling the requirement 'unnecessary' and saying it would require 'a tremendous expenditure of taxpayer funds.'

The legal filing requests a stay to the order issued last week by U.S. District Judge David M. Lawson, who ruled that state and city officials must immediately begin delivering four cases of bottled water each week to qualified households, particularly those that don’t have a properly installed or maintained water filter. The state said it plans to appeal the order to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The city of Flint was not a party to Thursday’s motion.

It has been more than a year since state officials acknowledged that Flint’s water was tainted with dangerous levels of lead, and more than two years since residents began complaining about problems with the water in the wake of a decision by a state-appointed emergency manager to switch the supply source to the Flint River to save money. Even now, residents cannot trust what flows from their taps."

Brady Dennis reports for the Washington Post November 17, 2016.