Matthew Dolan

Detroit Free Press

The administration of Gov. Rick Snyder moved today to block a federal court order forcing state officials to deliver bottled water to Flint residents who don't have properly installed and maintained water filters on their kitchen taps.

The state's legal filing seeks to stay a preliminary injunction issued last week pending an appeal in the case. U.S. District Judge David Lawson last Thursday ruled that the state and City of Flint must, effective immediately, deliver four cases of bottled water per resident per week to qualified Flint households.

“It’s sad that the State of Michigan continues to disenfranchise the community of Flint," one of the plaintiffs, Pastor Allen Overton with the Concerned Pastors for Social Action, said of the state's legal move. "What happened to Gov. Snyder’s pledge that he would work to fix Flint’s drinking water crisis? This action today inflicts more harm on a city that’s already hurting.”

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If the motion is denied, the state could appeal that decision to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The City of Flint did not join the stay motion filed by the state, according to the plaintiffs.

“The facts in this case are clear: The state is failing to deliver safe drinking water to the people of Flint," another plaintiff, Henry Henderson, Midwest director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said. "Seeking to delay the federal court order that the state immediately fix Flint’s water crisis is an obvious insult to the people of Flint, whose tap water has been contaminated with lead for more than two years.”

Essentially, Lawson originally ordered the state and city officials to deliver bottled water to all Flint homes, unless officials verify, on a regular basis, the home has a properly installed and functioning water filter, or the residents decline delivery. He ordered the state to also keep distribution centers open for residents who decline delivery.

"We appreciate the judge’s order and agree that clean water should be easily accessible to everyone in the city of Flint and more needs to be done to make that happen. We will do everything we can to abide by the order," Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said in a statement at the time. "We also know that making sure everyone has access to bottled water is just an immediate and temporary fix. We can’t rely on bottled water forever. The people of Flint should be able to turn on their faucets and get safe clean water without a filter, and that is our ultimate goal."

A spokeswoman for the mayor said Thursday that Weaver stands by her original statement.

Anna Heaton, a spokeswoman for Snyder, said today the order would have the effect of reversing the city's progress from the Flint water crisis by redirecting limited resources unnecessarily.

"The herculean effort required by the court order would be on the magnitude of a large-scale military operation," Heaton said.

In addition to delivering cases of water in extreme quantities, the state would have to address the full-time canvassing of homes to determine the ongoing status of water filters and deal with the potential public health risk from millions of empty water bottles suddenly flooding Flint’s trash and recycling system, according to Heaton.

"The resources to accomplish this would only be available through the activation of the National Guard or the hiring of several logistics companies with the necessary equipment and personnel to achieve this unprecedented level of effort," she said.

Complying with the order would also "significantly impact the state’s ability to continue ongoing efforts for recovery, including lead service line replacement and the current on-demand water delivery to those who are home-bound," the spokeswoman said.

Heaton said it also could interfere with recent efforts by the city, state and local nonprofit organizations to ramp up efforts providing Flint residents with jobs on teams already assigned to visit homes throughout the city to ensure filters are being used and maintained properly.

The speed of the city's recovery, state officials argue, will depend on how often they use tap water that has been filtered.

Much progress has been made on this front to date, but "a decrease in water use because people are using bottled water will slow the overall improvement of the pipes and could hinder the long-term stability of the system," Heaton said.

State officials said seeking to overturn the order will not decrease its commitment to provide on-demand delivery of water and filters, the replacement of lead service lines for long-term water quality improvement and other improvements geared toward the health, education and economic future of Flint residents.

Flint's water became contaminated with lead in April 2014. After months of denials amid public complaints about the color, taste and odor of the water, state officials acknowledged the public health crisis on Oct. 1, 2015. The contamination happened when the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager and switched its water source to the Flint River as a temporary cost-cutting measure. The state Department of Environmental Quality has acknowledged it made a mistake when it didn't require corrosion control chemicals as part of the treatment process, resulting in toxic lead leaching from pipes, joints and fixtures.

State officials argued bottled water can be picked up as needed at distribution centers, and those who can't pick it up can call 2-1-1 to arrange for delivery. They also argued the cost of delivering water to households would be $9 million per month.

However, "the plaintiffs have offered credible anecdotal evidence that indicates that the distribution network is in flux and not completely effective in providing safe drinking water to several households," Lawson said.

"Despite the substantial efforts of Capt. (Chris) Kelenske (of the Michigan State Police) and others, it is clear that some residents, who are actively seeking safe drinking water, are encountering great difficulty ..."

He said he heard testimony that some residents have stopped calling 2-1-1 because of frustrations with the response, and others don't know the service is available.

"A safe water supply has always been critical to civilization," Lawson said in granting the order sought in a lawsuit brought by Concerned Pastors for Social Change, Flint activist Melissa Mays, the ACLU and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Defendants in the lawsuit are state Treasurer Nick Khouri and state and city members of the Receivership Transition Advisory Board overseeing Flint as it emerges from state-ordered emergency management.

Contact Matthew Dolan: 313-223-4743 or msdolan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @matthewsdolan. Staff Writer Paul Egan contributed to this report.