Should Flint residents pay for lead-poisoned water?

FLINT – Residents of the impoverished City of Flint pay some of the highest water bills in Michigan. And those bills have not stopped coming or been reduced since state and local officials acknowledged the water is unsafe to drink without filtering.

That's wrong, says a growing chorus of residents and advocates.

They say the State of Michigan — which has acknowledged significant responsibility for the lead contamination of Flint's drinking water, which began in April 2014 and continues to pose a health threat today — should be picking up some or all of the tab.

Given the potential health and infrastructure implications of the Flint drinking water crisis, the water bill issue could be small change in the big picture. But it's galling for residents who get big invoices for water they now know they can't drink, and that — in some cases — they and their families consumed before knowing it wasn't safe. Lead can cause permanent brain damage in children.

Leon El-Alamin, executive director of the M.A.D.E. Institute in Flint, a nonprofit organization that has been distributing clean water, said a reduction of at least 50% in water bills is in order "until we get this thing resolved."

The Flint Journal reported in 2014 that the average water and sewer bill in Flint was about $140 a month. High charges from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department were cited as the primary reason the Flint City Council voted 7-1 in 2013 to split with Detroit in favor of a new pipeline being built to Lake Huron, the Karegnondi Water Authority.

Former Mayor Dayne Walling was quoted at the time of the vote as saying the city planned to keep getting its drinking water from Detroit until the new pipeline was built. But records show the decision to use the Flint River as an interim source was made while the city was under the control of state-appointed emergency manager Edward Kurtz and that the actual switch occurred while Flint was governed by his successor as emergency manager, Darnell Earley.

Earley is now emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools.

State officials have acknowledged that lead got into the drinking water because the state Department of Environmental Quality failed to require the addition of corrosion-control chemicals to the Flint River water, which caused lead to leach into the water from pipes and fixtures. Flint switched back to Detroit for its water in October, but a potential health hazard continues because of damage to the water-distribution infrastructure.

City water officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

Gov. Rick Snyder, asked about the billing issue at a Monday news conference in Flint, wouldn't comment on the issue. "I'm not going to speculate" about Flint water billing issues, he said.

Flint resident Amado Saldana Sr. said he has had his water shut off twice but scraped together hundreds of dollars to get the service reconnected both times. He said he feels a refund is in order.

"I would pay the bill, and it wasn't even 30 days after I paid it that I got another shut-off notice in the mail," said Saldana, 62, a retired GM worker who lives north of downtown with his two dogs.

Kary Moss, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan, said Flint residents shouldn't be charged anything for drinking water for the entire time the Flint River was used as a source. That's particularly true, she said, because records obtained by the ACLU show state DEQ officials may have manipulated water-testing data to show the water was safe to drink when it wasn't.

"All arrears should be cleared," Moss said Monday. "Nobody should have to pay for any of this." Asked who should pick up the cost of the water, Moss said: "That's something the city is going to have to work out with the state."

Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, said his city water bill for him, his wife and infant child is about $150 a month, Most residents there can't afford such charges, even for drinkable water, he said.

Ananich said he doesn't want to suggest people shouldn't pay their water bills, but since the state was at fault, the state should look at addressing the issue.

Val Washington, a Flint attorney who since 2014 has been in litigation with the city over unlawful billings and water shut-offs, said the city for years used water bills to subsidize city operations, instead of keeping the money in a separate fund used for the water system.

Records show a Genesee County Circuit Court judge in August ordered the city to remove unlawful charges, and Washington said the city has been found in contempt, in part because it hasn't made the required reductions to water charges.

On the water bills, compensation for health problems due to lead poisoning and fixing damaged city infrastructure, "the people who made the problem need to come in and fix it," Washington said.

Contact Paul Egan:517-372-8660, pegan@freepress.com or on Twitter @paulegan4