Settlement in Flint, Michigan, drinking water cases could top $500 million
LANSING, Mich. – The state of Michigan is close to a settlement totaling hundreds of millions of dollars for civil lawsuits arising from the lead contamination of Flint's drinking water, people familiar with the cases told the Detroit Free Press, part of the Paste BN Network.
Sources, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said an announcement of a framework for a settlement could be made as soon as Thursday or Friday, though there could still be many details to be worked out because of the complexity of the litigation and the large number of cases and defendants.
Media reports, including one from The New York Times, said Wednesday that the settlement, which would at a minimum apply to all state defendants, could total $500 million to $600 million. The Times also did not identify its sources.
People familiar with the cases who spoke to the Free Press on Wednesday would neither confirm nor deny those numbers.
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In 2018, U.S. District Judge Judith Levy, who is handling nearly all of the Flint civil litigation in federal court, named former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin and retired Wayne County Chief Judge Pamela Harwood as mediators in one of the major class-action cases.
Federal mediation has been ongoing under a news blackout, according to a person familiar with the case.
"The attorney general’s and governor’s teams have been engaged in an ongoing collaborative mediation effort in the Flint Water Cases for more than 18 months," said Ryan Jarvi, a spokesman for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
"We and the other parties are bound by a federal court order to maintain the confidentiality of detailed settlement and mediation communications until we reach a certain point. We have not yet reached the point where we can discuss a potential settlement."
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Nessel, a Democrat, said during her 2018 campaign that settling the Flint litigation was one of her top priorities.
Scores of lawsuits were filed against the state of Michigan, former Gov. Rick Snyder, a range of state and city officials, and others over the lead contamination.
Flint's water crisis began in April 2014, when a state-appointed emergency manager switched the city's drinking water supply from Lake Huron water treated in Detroit to Flint River water treated at the Flint Water Treatment Plant. It was a temporary, cost-saving measure, but it turned out to be a disastrous mistake. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has acknowledged it failed to require needed corrosion-control chemicals as part of the water treatment process.
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Before the 2014 water switch, the Flint City Council had backed a plan to join the KWA pipeline as a new water source, though members have said they thought the city would stay on Detroit water until the new pipeline was completed.
After Flint River water began flowing, corrosive water caused lead to leach from joints, pipes and fixtures, causing a spike in toxic lead levels in the blood of Flint children and other residents.
Flint switched back to Detroit water in October 2015, but some risk remains because of damage to the city's water distribution infrastructure.
Follow Paul Egan on Twitter @paulegan4.