The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals says the state must start delivering bottled water to households in Flint that don’t have working filters.
It was a two-to-one split decision on the appeals court panel. The majority accused the state of Michigan of fudging on both the cost and the scope of delivering bottled water to Flint households. It said the state’s estimate of $10.5 million a month to deliver water didn’t take into account how many Flint households already have working water filters. The court said the state doesn’t seem to have a plan for ensuring every Flint household has safe drinking water without the deliveries.
The dissenting judge said it’s not clear the state of Michigan and Governor Rick Snyder’s administration have broken any federal laws, and a better solution would be to make sure all homes in Flint have working water filters.
