the flint city council to approve a 30-year contract with the great lakes water authority. june 26 – after several hours of debate, city council decides to postpone the vote on whether to approve the 30-year glwa (great lakes water authority) contract until september 2017. june 28 – michigan sues flint, alleging that the city council's failure to approve a recommendation to buy water long-term from the glwa is endangering the public. flint hires an attorney to fight the charges and renegotiate the contract with the state. july 24 – the flint fast start initiative announces that over 2,500 of the approximately 30,000 homes needing new water service lines have completed pipe replacement. august 11 – mdeq releases a letter stating that flint has "significant deficiencies", which among other issues include source water, financial, distribution system, management and operations. august 29 – a study published in the american chemical society's publication environmental science & technology states that the flint river was "a likely trigger contributing to the increase in legionnaires' disease incidence." september 15 – water from 138 flint homes tested during the prior month by virginia tech registers lead levels well below the federal guidelines. marc edwards states it is likely the last time such sampling coordinated by virginia tech will be necessary in flint. september 20 – a study conducted by professors david slusky and daniel grossman is released demonstrating that fertility rates decreased by 12 percent among flint women and fetal death rates increased by 58 percent since the switch to the flint river in 2014. october 9 – state prosecutors announce that eden wells, michigan's top medical official, will be charged with involuntary manslaughter for her role in the water crisis, which was linked to an outbreak of legionnaires' disease that caused at least 12 deaths. october 9 – flint city council hires a north dakota-based environmental consultant for $150,000 to conduct an analysis of the city's potential future water sources. october 10 – a michigan department of health and human services study finds that the flint river water did not contribute to the increase in infant deaths and stillbirths in flint. october 17 – a federal judge orders the city of flint to choose a long-term water source by october 23, 2017. october 26 – an epa report finds fault with michigan's oversight of flint's drinking water system, placing the most blame with the mdeq. october 31 – the city council votes to extend its contract with the glwa for another 30 days while a long-term deal is pending. november 21 – the city council votes 5–4 to sign a 30-year contract with glwa. 2018 january – the city contracts a private consulting firm, aecom, to take over water service line excavations and stops using the machine learning model. during 2018, 10,531 excavations are performed, yielding a hit rate of only 15%. january 8 – mdeq official eric oswald tells the epa he also has concerns about flint's "long-term, technical, managerial and financial capacity" to handle the responsibility and that "the city faces numerous challenges in staffing its limited water treatment plant." january 12 – an mdeq study for the first half of 2017 claims 90% of water samples were at or below 7 parts per billion (ppb) of lead, with an official stating the city's "water quality is restored." over 30,000 flint water samples have been tested during the crisis. february 5 – a proceedings of the national academy of sciences study on the causes of an outbreak of legionnaires' disease in flint in 2014 and 2015 finds that low chlorine levels were the cause. chlorine, which kills microbes responsible for the disease, also reacts with heavy metals like lead and iron. high levels of lead and iron in flint's water may have been responsible for the decreased amount of chlorine available. march 12 – data from mdeq quality shows the spike in samples from flint elementary schools that tested above 15 ppb of lead, the threshold under the epa lead and copper rule. march 26 – a study published in the journal of pediatrics shows blood lead levels in flint children ages 5 and younger hit an all-time low in 2016. april 2 – a new study by the mdeq reports that elevated lead levels were found in 4 percent of final water samples from flint community schools. one school's results show lead levels at 100 ppb, six times the federal action level. april 6 – the state announces the distribution of free bottled water in the city is ending. water distribution centers will close over the next few days, although water and replacement cartridges will still be available. in response, mayor weaver says the city plans to sue the state so it can continue. the program was funded through a $450 million federal loan, which had not run out. michigan planned to end the distribution since tests of flint's water show low lead levels. the distribution continues until the supply runs out. april 7 – hundreds of flint residents flee to water bottle distribution centers to gather remaining free water bottles. residents are still worried about drinking water from taps, since not all of the pipelines have been switched. april 12 – a federal judge approves a $4.1m settlement to be used to test flint children for lead poisoning. april 13 – the natural resources defense council announces the results of tests of 92 homes with lead service lines show the 90th percentile for lead is 4 ppb. april 23 – flint resident leeanne walters is awarded the goldman environmental prize for her role in exposing the water crisis. april 26 – the epa approves a $1.9 million grant to virginia tech professor marc edwards for nationwide research of lead contamination in drinking water, to ensure of the safety of future generations. the grant will be used to help people where there is a suspicion of lead being in their drinking water but government officials are not acting on it. this project is said to target michigan and louisiana initially, and then it will branch out to other areas. may 10 – mayor weaver announces that nestle will donate 1.6 million bottles of water (100,000 bottles of water per week) until september 3, 2018. water will be available to flint residents at distribution centers throughout the city. may 16 – flint department of public works director robert bincsik sends a letter to the epa saying there are still 14,000 lead service lines in the city, 15% more than previous projections. may 27 – jordan chariton reports, the youtube channel and reporting website, releases an investigative piece on truthdig showing that the science and data used to declare the water safe in flint were suspect. the report is featured on the may 31, 2018, episode of the thom hartmann program. june 14 – michigan enacts the strictest law in the united states for lead in drinking water, imposing a limit of 12 ppb, as opposed to the federal limit which is 15 ppb. this is projected to be achieved by 2025. june 15 – george krisztian, an assistant director of mdeq's office of drinking water and municipal assistance, says that flint's 90th percentile for lead was 6 ppb in the first six months of the year, up since the state stopped bottled water deliveries to the city in april. the mdeq also says it is ready to turn the testing program back over to the city. july 11 – elon musk states on twitter: "please consider this a commitment that i will fund fixing the water in any house in flint that has water contamination above fda levels. no kidding." july 30 – the mdeq announces that in june and july 2018, of the 420 filtered water samples from flint public schools tested, 100 percent were below 15 ppb of lead, and more than 99 percent met the 5 ppb bottled water standard. august 21 – nrdc and several local groups participate in a hearing regarding two major issues: whether the city can defend its lead service line inventory methods and whether the city should be required to install home water filters immediately following service line replacements to mitigate lead spikes in drinking water. september 24 – the mayor's office reports that a total of 15,031 pipes have been excavated at homes in flint. this includes service lines to 7,233 homes that have been identified as lead and/or galvanized steel which have been replaced, including 1,005 homes newly discovered in 2018. september 28 – a report by the michigan department of health and human services says the genesee county health department failed to help 85% of children diagnosed with high blood lead levels in 2016. october 5 – elon musk donates approximately $480,000 to the flint school system to pay for uv filtration devices in all 12 schools; installation is expected to be completed by january 2019. december 26 – in a published interview, governor-elect gretchen whitmer pledges to restore free water distribution to flint residents. 2019 on her first day in office, governor gretchen whitmer directed state employees to immediately report to their department or agency director any threat to public health or safety. january 2 – in her first act as governor, whitmer signs an executive directive requiring state employees to immediately report to their department or agency director any threat to public health or safety, an action inspired by the decisions made by her predecessor's administration that led to the water crisis. january 4 – michigan attorney general dana nessel offers wayne county prosecutor kym worthy the job of special prosecutor on the flint water crisis criminal cases, succeeding todd flood. worthy accepts the job on february 21. flood is reassigned as special assistant attorney general on february 25, while several other attorneys join the prosecution teams. on april 29, flood is fired by solicitor general fadwa hammoud, who claims he failed to "fully and properly" pursue potentially important evidence in criminal cases tied to the flint water crisis. february 18 – a report posted online by the mdeq says the 90th percentile for 51 high-risk homes tested in flint from may through december 2018 was 4 ppb of lead—less than half the current federal and future state action level. march 28 – the march 2017 settlement is amended to require the city to replace thousands of lead service lines and return to using the machine learning model. by june 2019, the lead pipe hit rate rises to 60–70% for the excavations. april 23 – status coup, an independent investigative reporting network co-founded by jordan chariton and jenn dize, releases the documentary flushing flint, which claims that the water testing by mdeq was manipulated by mdeq staff taking water samples after flushing running water from taps for several minutes before taking the samples, contrary to normal procedures for water testing for copper and lead, and by mdeq staff telling residents that they should take water samples after flushing running water from their taps for several minutes. this would clearly contravene the epa guidance that samples taken must be "first-draw samples at taps in homes/buildings". may 30 – a new study by virginia tech professors marc edwards and sid roy published in the peer-reviewed journal water research relies on years of data from routine measurements of metals in flint's sewage sludge, showing a connection between rising levels of lead in city waste, blood lead levels in children and use of the flint river as a water source. june – the researchers responsible for developing the machine learning model, eric schwartz and jake abernethy, form blueconduit, a for-profit, social venture aimed at leveraging data science and machine learning to find and remove lead pipes around the country. june 3 – the government-issued phones of 65 state officials, including former governor snyder, are seized in a criminal investigation into the crisis. june 13 – attorney general nessel announces that charges will be dropped against eight people and investigations will be restarted in the scandal. july 31 – the city fails to meet its self-imposed deadline to replace all service lines and defaults to its legally binding deadline of january 1, 2020. october 10 – the epa proposes updates to the lead and copper rule, which has remained relatively unchanged since 1991.