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[WedgeX]

Courtesy the Detroit Free Press.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality sued the city of Flint today over the city council's foot-dragging in approving Detroit's Great Lakes Water Authority as its long-term drinking water source.

The city has been buying water from the GLWA by extending contracts for several months at a time. The mayor wants to strike a 30-year agreement.

The lawsuit is a striking turnabout for the DEQ, the agency that investigations have shown was largely to blame for the city's disastrous switch away from Detroit water to the Flint River as a temporary drinking source in April 2014.

The switch to the more corrosive river water without the DEQ requiring the addition of corrosion control chemicals resulted in lead leaching into the drinking water and a spike in lead levels in the blood of Flint children. The switch is also suspected in outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease linked to 12 Flint-area deaths.

...

Mays said he wants to change the deal to make sure Flint doesn't lose its investment in the Karegnondi Water Authority -- a new pipeline to Lake Huron which was instrumental in Flint switching away from Detroit water while under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager.

The state caused the water crisis by taking control of Flint drinking water and is now trying to do so again, in a way that will also do damage to the city, Mays said. "It's kind of ironic," he said.

It's baffling.

 

[SamuelSupreme]

Courtesy the Detroit Free Press.



It's baffling.

No it's not...This is Black people and America we are talking about here.

 

[Plinko]

Michissippi strikes again.

 

[Wilsongt]

michigan legislature probably just wants Flint to shut down and go away.

 

[turnbuckle]

I feel like the OP and the thread title are ignoring the real reason for the suit. I guess it's a more eye-opening headline. But this story deserves more than hot takes and selective quoting.

There's a reason for the suit. It's not just a "somehow".

The mayor has been trying to get approval for a 30 year deal to stay on the GLWA (the water source they were on before the FInancial Manager switched them to the Flint River).
The council isn't biting, instead only accepting a short-term lease.

Hard to say which is the right way to go, but there's a lot of support for the mayor's plan. The council refusing to accept along with the costs and risks of doing so are reason for the suit.

Here's an article about the decision making leading to sticking with the GLWA and using the Karegondi as a back-up.

Here's the story from today per AP/NY Times.