Crews work to dig out and replace lead service lines on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 at the 2300 block of Calumet Street on Flint's east side. Eight days after the supply of state-funded bottled water ran out in the city, the Flint Action and Sustainability Team begin the work after winter as part of the massive underground construction program, which aims to have contract teams remove and replace at least 6,000 lead and galvanized service lines this construction season. These are pipes that the city says were damaged during its water crisis and remain dangerous potential sources of lead contamination. (Jake May | MLive.com)Jake May

(This story has been updated with comments from Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley.)

FLINT, MI -- The city is falling down on the job of excavating and replacing the last of its lead and galvanized steel water service lines, only starting the work that remains weeks before a Sept. 30 deadline, the Natural Resources Defense Council says.

The NRDC said in a news release Wednesday, Sept. 21, that residents are “on the brink of being let down by city officials responsible for fixing Flint’s drinking water” because of the late restart of the program and with just 10 days before the deadline set in a modified settlement agreement with the group, the Concerned Pastors for Social Action and others.

Mayor Sheldon Neeley said the city is “in a good position to thoroughly complete lead line excavations and restorations, in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”

Neeley made the comment in a statement released by the city. The statement did not give a timeline for completing the work.

“We have overcome immense challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic, to a bad contractor, to multiple delays by City Council,” the mayor’s statement says. “Thousands of addresses have been added through litigation, and we are still making good progress towards completion. We are making sure that our process is thorough, ensuring that all lead lines are replaced.”

Earlier this year, Neeley was critical of the City Council for failing to act quickly on a contract extension for Rowe Professional Services, which is managing the final phase of the service line program.

In August, the council approved a $17.8-million contract with Lakeshore Global Corp. to carry out the service line work and to complete the restoration of lawns and sidewalks at thousands of properties where excavations have been done previously.

The NRDC, Concerned Pastors and Melissa Mays, operations manager of Flint Rising, were among those that filed a lawsuit against the state of Michigan and the city that resulted in the original settlement in 2017.

The settlement required the excavation of every service line in Flint and the replacement of those lines composed of lead or galvanized steel -- pipes that researchers have said were damaged by corrosive water during the Flint water crisis.

Service line excavations and restorations have been funded by the federal Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, which provided Flint with more than $100 million for capital water system improvements after federal recognition of the water crisis.

“The city of Flint has conducted lead service line replacement work at only about a dozen homes in 2022. It is an unacceptable performance by our elected officials. The threat of lead contamination is not over, as we’ve seen from recent monitoring showing rising lead levels in the city’s drinking water,” Mays said in the NRDC release. “As the state of Michigan approaches the milestone of removing all of (Benton Harbor’s) lead pipes, a move supported by advocates and concerned citizens in Flint, we ask: Why not Flint?”

Read more at The Flint Journal:

Detroit company in line to get $17.8M service line contract in Flint

Proposed deal would give Flint more time to complete service line replacements

5 years after water crisis, 1 in 4 Flint residents suffered PTSD, study says

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