Michigan sues Flint over failing to approve long-term water deal

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Michigan sued the city of Flint on Wednesday in federal court over its failure to approve a long-term drinking water source for residents.

Flint switched its water supply in 2014, sparking a crisis that was linked to an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease and at least 12 deaths, as well as exposure of residents to dangerously high lead levels. Since October 2015, the city has obtained its water from the Great Lakes Water Authority.

But the Flint city council's refusal this week to approve a long-term agreement with the supplier, negotiated by the city's mayor, without proposing a reasonable alternative, will "cause an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health in Flint," according to the lawsuit filed by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

The state is asking the court to bar Flint from changing water sources and adopt the long-term agreement.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-michigan-water-idUSKBN19J26Y

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U.S. | Wed Jun 28, 2017 | 4:04pm EDT
By Suzannah Gonzales and Chris Kenning

[procon]

1. Geniuses! The Flint city council wants to go back to using the same water

that caused the lead to leach into everyone's water and poisoned the whole community in the first place. Why, is it money? Didn't they damage enough human beings on the first go round that they need to go back and make it worse?

[MichMan]

2. Wrong! It's not the same water

There is absolutely no plan to go back to the water from the Flint river as was stated clearly in the link if it was read. The state just wants the city to agree to a long term agreement with the water source currently in use the last couple years. The water from the Great Lakes Water Authority is from Lake Huron