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Flint/Genesee County Job Corps Center students gather cases of water to distribute at the school to those in need during the Flint water crisis on Wednesday March 30, 2016 at the Flint/Genesee County Job Corps Center. Water has been given-away on Wednesday's at the location on Saginaw Street for the past five months. The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan delivers ten pallets each Wednesday to be distributed. Residents are able to load up with as much water as they need. (Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)

LANSING -- A federal appeals court on Friday refused to stay a judge's order that requires the State of Michigan to make regular deliveries of bottled water to Flint households that don't have a working water filter on their kitchen taps.

Friday's 2-1 ruling by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals marks the third time a federal court has told the state to begin the water deliveries, which the state argues is unnecessary and too costly.

U.S. District Judge David Lawson has twice ordered the state to start the bottled water deliveries to all households that the state can't demonstrate has a properly installed and maintained water filter to remove lead contamination.

The state continues to fight Lawson's order and filed a new motion this week saying the water deliveries aren't needed because the unfiltered tap water in Flint now meets federal standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The City of Flint says in court filings it supports the state's request to stay Lawson's order.

The majority on the 6th Circuit said the state's "disingenuous claim that the daily delivery of bottled water would be at an expense of $10.5 million a month, is not supported by the record."

"Flint residents continue to suffer irreparable harm from the lack of reliable access to safe drinking water," said Senior Judge Damon Keith and Judge Bernice Donald.

"Many residents who rely on filters that are improperly installed continue to be at risk of exposure to lead. Compliance with the order only requires that the state defendants deliver bottled water to homes until they ensure that a home has a properly installed and maintained water filter, or if the the residents opt out of the delivery service."

The order arose from a lawsuit brought by Concerned Pastors for Flint, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the ACLU, and Flint resident and activist Melissa Mays.

“The courts have spoken and the State of Michigan’s foot-dragging must end now,” said Dimple Chaudhary, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Defendants in the case are Michigan Treasurer Nick Khouri and members of the state-appointed Flint Receivership Transition Advisory Board, which is overseeing Flint's return from state-ordered receivership to self-government.

Anna Heaton, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Snyder, said the state has been delivering bottled water to Flint residents who call 2-1-1 to request it, and will continue to do so.

"The state and city are in agreement that bottled water deliveries to residents who do not require them will reduce the progress made in the city’s recovery," Heaton said in an e-mail.

"The dispute in this matter is over science, not over providing resources to residents of Flint," she said. "This is a complex issue where the data is monitored closely and updated frequently and the court did not address more recent testing showing Flint’s lead levels under the federal action level."

Mays said in a news release issued by the NRDC that “today’s decision is much-needed good news for the people of Flint," adding "I’m especially pleased the court rejected the State’s complaints about the ‘burden’ of delivering safe drinking water to Flint."

In a dissent, Judge Jeffrey Sutton said it's not clear that the Flint drinking water is still in violation of federal law and ordering the water delivery could "do more harm than good."

Sutton said the state defendants should focus on "measuring current water quality and ensuring that each filter works," but "that most assuredly will not happen in the face of this order."

Flint was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager when the drinking water became contaminated in April 2014, due to improper treatment of Flint River water after the city stopped getting its drinking water from Detroit.

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

Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2hXszLK</s>(Reuters) - Michigan must deliver bottled water or provide in-home filtration to all qualified residents in the city of Flint, where lead contamination sparked a public health crisis, a U.S. appellate panel ruled on Friday upholding a lower-court order.

The Flint Water Plant tower is seen in Flint, Michigan, U.S. on February 7, 2016. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo

The state argued that door-to-door deliveries to all Flint households exposed to lead-tainted tap water would be financially crippling and was unnecessary because bottled water was available to residents at government-run distribution sites, or by delivery upon request.

But a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, refused the state’s plea to set aside the blanket water-delivery order imposed on Nov. 10 by U.S. District Judge David Lawson.

“Although there may be no known precedent for the door-to-door delivery of bottled water, there is also no precedent for the systematic infrastructure damage to a water delivery system that has caused thousands of people to be exposed to poisonous water,” circuit judges Damon Keith and Bernice Donald wrote in Friday’s opinion.

The appeals court disputed the state’s cost projection for blanket home deliveries - $10.5 million a month - as “disingenuous” and “not supported by the record.”

Under Lawson’s order, city and state officials must provide in-home filtration or deliver four cases of bottled water per affected household each week, except where they can prove a water filter is installed and properly maintained, or to residents opting out.

Governor Rick Snyder’s office said that bottled water had been furnished by delivery for months to those residents who requested it.

“The state and city are in agreement that bottled water deliveries to residents who do not require them will reduce the progress made in the city’s recovery,” a statement said.

Michigan has been at the center of a public health crisis since last year, when tests found high levels of lead in blood samples taken from children in Flint, a predominantly black city of 100,000.

The contamination was linked to an April 2014 decision by a state-appointed emergency manager to switch Flint’s water source to the Flint River from Lake Huron to save money. The more corrosive river water caused lead to leach from city pipes into the drinking water.

Flint switched back in October 2015, but the water has not fully returned to normal. The city has been replacing lead pipes running to homes, and state officials have said the water is safe to drink if properly filtered.</s>DETROIT — A federal appeals court on Friday refused to block delivery of free bottled water in Flint if residents have trouble with lead filters, saying Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's administration is exaggerating the scope and cost of compliance.

In a 2-1 decision, the court said delivery might be unusual. But it noted there's "no precedent" for a system that "has caused thousands of people to be exposed to poisonous water."

"The injunction is in place to ensure that those people have access to clean water," said judges Damon Keith and Bernice Donald at the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

On Nov. 10, U.S. District Judge David Lawson said the state and Flint must deliver water to people who don't have a properly working filter and want the water. Free bottled water and filters have been available all over the city for months, but the judge said the response still hasn't been totally effective.

The state and outside experts insist water quality has greatly improved in Flint since the city stopped using the Flint River in 2015, although people still are urged to use filters. The river water wasn't treated to reduce corrosion, causing lead to leach from old pipes in the city of roughly 100,000 residents.

The appeals court said the state has been "disingenuous" with earlier claims that it would cost $10.5 million a month to deliver bottled water.

"For homes that have properly installed water filters, bottled delivery is not ordered. It is only ordered for homes where there is no proper filter in place," the court said.

"Do the plaintiffs really want the state's and city's limited resources focused on immediate door-to-door delivery now as opposed to using that measure as a last resort if the defendants cannot ensure that the filters are working in, say, two or three months?" Sutton said.

It's unclear how many homes would qualify for home delivery. The state says every Flint home has been visited and 96 had new filters.

"The courts have spoken and the state of Michigan's foot-dragging must end now," said Dimple Chaudhary, attorney with the Natural Resources Council.

In an update filed Friday, the state said it wants to meet with the judge to discuss "significant logistical difficulties" with home delivery.

"A sufficient number of available vans, semi-trucks, drivers, and apparently does not currently exist to immediately implement this delivery program. Such an effort could only be implemented gradually over several months," Assistant Attorney General Richard Kuhl said.

This story has been corrected to show that the second judge on majority opinion was Bernice Donald, not Jeffrey Sutton.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior House Democrat is accusing Michigan’s Republican governor of stonewalling the House Oversight Committee over documents the panel is seeking related to Flint, Michigan’s ongoing water crisis.

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, senior Democrat on the oversight panel, says he wants Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to produce key Flint-related documents within 30 days. Cummings says Snyder and his administration have obstructed the committee’s investigation into the Flint crisis for a year, refusing to provide — or even search for — key documents.

Cummings says Snyder’s intransigence has thwarted committee efforts to answer critical questions about what he knew as the crisis unfolded and why he didn’t act sooner to fix Flint’s water problem.

Cummings asked GOP Chairman Jason Chaffetz of Utah to issue a subpoena compelling Snyder to produce the documents.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has signed a bill authorizing water projects across the country, including $170 million to address lead in the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, and $558 million to provide relief to drought-stricken California.

Obama said Friday the bill advances vital projects across the country to restore watersheds, improve flood control and rebuild water infrastructure — including pipes in Flint, where residents have struggled with lead-tainted water for more than two years.

Obama said the bill will “help assure that California is more resilient in the face of growing water demands and drought-based uncertainty.”

Congress approved the $10 billion measure last week, despite complaints from some Democrats that it was a giveaway to California farmers and businesses. Obama said the law will continue to uphold state water quality standards.
A Federal appeals court upholds the November 10 lower court order that Michigan must deliver bottled water or provide in-home filtration to all qualified residents affected by lead contamination in the city of Flint.