Thousands of Flint, Mich., residents have been warned that they could lose their homes if they don't pay outstanding water bills -- even as the city has just begun replacing lead-tainted pipes after a contamination crisis linked to a dozen deaths.
Warning letters were mailed to 8,002 residents in April, according to the city, a few weeks after state officials ended a program that was paying the majority of their water bills.
But many Flint residents still don't trust their taps and are lining up for free bottled water or installing city-recommended filters after revelations in 2014 and 2015 that dangerous levels of lead had leached into the system while officials tried to cut costs.
"I'm not going to give them one penny," a resident who owed $822.62 told the Toronto Star in March, shortly before letters warning of tax liens were mailed out.
More than $5.8 million in water and sewer charges needs to be collected, according to the city.
"This is difficult for residents, too," city spokesman Kristin Moore said. "It's a tough place to be in, but we're just trying to do the best we can."
The letters give residents with half a year or more of unpaid bills a month to pay up or face possible foreclosure.
Moore said residents will have until next February to pay before the county is called in to enforce the warnings. And the city called the 8,000 letters "routine" in a statement -- though no one got one last year, in the aftermath of the lead poisoning crisis.
In 2014, a state-appointed manager switched Flint's water supply from a lake to the Flint River.
More than a dozen state and local officials have since been charged with crimes after corrosion from the new water source allowed rust, iron and lead into the water supply. They're accused of ignoring warnings and knowingly putting the industrial city's 95,000 residents in danger.
"The catastrophe exposed thousands of children to high levels of lead, which can cause long-term physical damage and mental impairment," Brady Dennis wrote for The Washington Post. "And water contamination also has been linked to the deaths of a dozen people from Legionnaires' disease."
The city has since started paying Detroit for tap water, and earlier this year, state officials said lead in the water had fallen to safer levels.
But in March, resident Melissa Mays and other plaintiffs in a lawsuit forced the city to begin replacing 18,000 lead-tainted pipes.
Under the settlement, the state must also continue to distribute free bottled water to residents who want it and ensure every home has a working water filter.
But the same month, the state ended a crisis-era program that paid 65 percent of residents' water bills.
Mays, one of many who still doesn't trust the water system, refused to pay.
"We just don't want to pay to have ourselves killed," she told the Toronto Star at the time.
In a statement Wednesday, Rep. Daniel Kildee, D-Mich., blamed the state for "callous decisions" that created the debacle. "Flint families should not have to pay for water that they still cannot drink," he said.
Moore said officials had no choice under a city law but to send out the letters.
"We are legally obligated to follow this process," she said.
Separately, the Michigan attorney general dropped a misdemeanor charge against a Flint official who cooperated in a criminal investigation of the city's lead-contaminated water.
Mike Glasgow appeared in court Thursday, a year after pleading no contest to neglect of duty. Prosecutors had indicated last year that he might get a break.
Glasgow was running the water plant in 2014 when Flint dropped out of a regional water system and began using untreated water from the Flint River, which corroded old lead pipes and fixtures and poisoned the water supply.
Glasgow had complained to state regulators that the water plant wasn't ready. He still was accused of failing to perform duties required of a certified water plant operator.
Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 05/06/2017