Bill Laitner and Ann Zaniewski

Detroit Free Press

State officials have decided to end the state-funded subsidies that since 2014 had helped Flint residents pay their water bills after the city's water system became contaminated with lead.

Word of the subsidies' impending cutoff surfaced Thursday after a senior adviser to Gov. Rick Snyder sent a letter to Flint’s interim chief financial officer, saying the subsidies will stop after Feb. 28, according to a news release from the City of Flint.

The reaction of Flint's mayor and other city officials was mild, characterizing the governor's decision as a sign that the city's water quality had improved although they stopped short of saying it was entirely safe. But vehement objections followed quickly from community leaders in Flint, as well as from critics of the state's role in the water crisis including prominent Democratic Party politicians. All said the cutoff of subsidies was premature, and some said it was an example of Snyder trying to downplay the seriousness of the crisis.

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver issued a statement voicing concern at the abruptness of the cutoff but said it was a welcome sign that Flint's water is improving.

“I am aware that the water quality in the City of Flint is improving and that is a good thing,” Weaver said, adding: “We knew the state’s assistance with these water-related expenses would come to an end at some point. I just wish we were given more notice so we at City Hall, and the residents, had more time to prepare for the changes."

A spokeswoman in the governor's office said that the water quality in Flint had been found, through testing, to meet the requirements of the federal Lead and Copper Rule and Safe Drinking Water Act, making it "comparable" to the water quality in other municipalities around the state and the nation.

"Because of this, the funding provided by state taxpayers will no longer be used to pay for source water or water bill credits in Flint," said Anna Heaton, press secretary to the governor. Snyder was committed to continuing other forms of assistance to Flint, including "health care, education and economic needs," she said.

"Gov. Snyder continued his commitment to Flint just yesterday in his budget recommendation, in which he added nearly $50 million to the $247 million already appropriated to help Flint move forward."

But U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, widely expected to run for governor in 2018, said in a statement: “This decision is disappointing, since it was the actions by state government that created this crisis (and) this crisis is not over.

"The city still today must buy usable water from other communities instead of treating its own water at the city plant. This is because of decisions by un-elected emergency managers that got the city into this emergency in the first place. Flint families still need the state to step up and do more until the city can treat its own water.”

And state Sen. Jim Ananich, a Flint resident and leader of the state Senate's Democratic caucus, said he was troubled because "most experts say we still need to use water filters — this water is still not safe to drink."

Ananich said that, with an 18-month-old son at home, he and his wife would continue to use bottled water for drinking for the foreseeable future.

"This was costing the state a few million dollars a month, which is expensive, but people shouldn't pay for water they can't use," Ananich said.

The state's letter to Flint City Hall noted that the latest six-month cycle of water testing generated results below the "action level" called for in the Lead and Copper Rule, a federal standard for determining that water is safe.

Because of the improved test results, “the payments of water credits on Flint’s active water customer accounts, which have covered water usage since April 2014, will continue for water used through the end of February," according to the city. After that, water bills in March will be the last ones to be reduced by the "state-funded water relief credits" of 20% for commercial accounts and 65% for residential accounts, the letter said. Overall, officials said, more than $40 million in water relief credits have been applied to the accounts of Flint water customers.

Flint residents paid the highest water rates in America, even as their water was tainted with lead, according to a national study released in February 2016 by the public interest group Food and Water Watch.

A survey of the 500 largest water systems in the country, conducted last year, found that on average, Flint residents paid about $864 a year for water service, nearly double the national average and about 3½ times as much as Detroiters pay.

News of the subsidy cutoff upset the Rev. Jeffery Hawkins, pastor of the 125-member Prince of Peace Church in Flint.

"I was actually at the bill signing that made this (subsidy) possible," Hawkins told the Free Press.

"That bill was meant so that we would only pay for the sewer (charges), and yes the water is OK for flushing toilets. But I'm not going to trust it for drinking anytime. Most people here are still not comfortable drinking this water," he said.

That means that most must drive, and some even take buses, to pick up bottled water for cooking and drinking, Hawkins said.

According to state officials, there will be no changes for now in the availability of free bottled water at various sites in Flint. In addition, residents can visit the sites to obtain free water filters, replacement cartridges, bottled water and at-home water-testing kits, according to the state's letter.

But in another reduction of state aid to Flint's crisis, after this month the state no longer will provide funding for the water the city receives from the Great Lakes Water Authority, which amounts to about $1.2 million a month.

Flint's drinking water became contaminated with lead in April 2014 after the city switched its supply source and treatment while under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager. Instead of getting Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, as the city had for years, Flint started drawing more corrosive and polluted water from the Flint River and treating it at the city water treatment plan.

The cost-cutting move — which was to be a stopgap move while the city waited for the new Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline to Lake Huron to be built — resulted in a spike in lead levels in children. At least 13 government officials have been charged by the state for their alleged role in the water crisis, including former Flint emergency managers Darnell Early and Gerald Ambrose.

The state is now abandoning responsibility for a crisis its emergency managers caused, said Laura Sullivan, 54, a city resident and water activist.

“The situation we’re in now — all the costs of rebuilding the system, all the costs of health care for people hurt by this — is entirely due to Gov. Snyder appointing these emergency managers” who approved sending Flint River water through the city water system, Sullivan said. The river water was haphazardly treated prior to distribution, a failure that has been blamed for the leaching of lead particles from inside the city’s aging pipes, allowing lead contamination to poison those who consumed the water.

The end of the state's payments covering the purchase of water by the City of Flint from the Great Lakes Water Authority — formerly the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department — means that Flint City Hall has that much less money available to upgrade its water-system infrastructure, said Melissa May, an organizer with the nonprofit group Flint Rising, a coalition of about a dozen groups of water activists.

A key aspect of that loss of funding is that the city will have far less cash available to replace residents' antiquated lead and galvanized-iron service lines, the pipes that connect from city water mains to the plumbing in older houses and which tests have shown can introduce lead particles into a household's water, May said. So far, the city has replaced about 700 of the lines, but an additional 20,000 remain to be replaced, she said.

Unlike the outcry Thursday from long-standing critics of Snyder and state environmental officials, Flint City Hall sounded notes of acceptance and even optimism.

“We will continue working to fully recover from this water crisis and make sure residents have the resources, services and support they need," concluded a statement from the mayor's office.

Contact Ann Zaniewski: azaniewski@freepress.com