This post will be updated as information is available. Last updated 12/9/2022.

What Happened

On June 15th, 2022, a fisherman alerted authorities to an oily substance contaminating the Flint River just north of Dort Hwy in the city of Flint. Local, state, and federal authorities responded, and testing tied the spill to Lockhart Chemical Co, located on James P Cole Blvd. To date, more than 20,000 gallons of waste has spilled into the Flint River.

The Lockhart property is drained through storm sewer outfall 001 into the Flint River. The spill was a mix of industrial chemical waste from an underground storage system that was not maintained, causing the chemicals to leach into the soil, and then into the storm drain system. Work is still underway to monitor and test the river, and to ensure no further materials enter the water. This process is ongoing and the information we receive changes regularly. As of the EGLE citation sent to Lockhart on August 18th, Lockhart was still allowing discharge of petroleum products and white residuals into the groundwater and/or the Flint River, and had not voluntarily complied with EGLE’s previous orders to prevent further spills.

From the August 19th MLive article: “State records show that concerns about the property date back decades, including a report by the city more than 18 years ago that indicated groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds was infiltrating into a city sewer from the Lockhart property, located at 4302 James P. Cole Boulevard.”

Lockhart Chemical resumed operations at its facility with a modified cease and desist order and updated wastewater discharge permit from the City of Flint, including increased testing requirements. They are not, however, permitted by the state to discharge into the stormwater system, or use their underground waste storage system. EGLE found out Lockhart had in fact resumed using the underground storage system on September 12th.

The EGLE Director, in cooperation with the state Attorney General and the Genesee County Sheriff’s Department, delivered an order on September 19th to block Lockhart from using the deteriorated waste storage trench and tunnel system to prevent further discharges to the soil and river. According to MLive, this was the first such action by the state in more than 30 years. The order requires Lockhart to pump its waste into above ground storage tanks until it can be transported off site for disposal. Failure to comply can be met with fines of $25,000 per day. EGLE representatives said they chose a Directors' Order because it was the most timely way to prevent what they saw as an imminent threat of further contamination and discharges to the Flint River.

Lockhart Chemical filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in Pennsylvania on Monday, October 10th (see linked documents below). The company ceased operations at the Flint facility immediately, and their assets, including the property, were taken over by a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee, Natalie Lutz-Cardiello. The courts and the trustee will decide how to distribute Lockhart's assets, including money and property, amongst the company's creditors. The State of Michigan, via the Attorney General's Office, is working with the trustee to request the environmental clean-up be prioritized when assets are assigned. Documents filed with the courts, as noted in an MLive article, estimate Lockhart's assets to be between $1 million and $10 million, and their liabilities to more than 60 creditors to be between $10 million and $50 million. From a Flint Beat article, included in the creditor list is the city of Flint’s Department of Public Safety and its Water Pollution Control Division, a Flint-based environmental cleanup company, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and the state’s attorney general’s office.

With operations at the Lockhart Chemical site shut-down, there is little risk of any major additional contamination into the Flint River, though the site, and its groundwater, remain contaminated. However, EGLE has confirmed there continues to be a small amount of chemical discharge from Outfall 001 into the Flint River. There are booms remaining around the outfall which are collecting the chemicals. The booms are being monitored and cleaned out as needed. EGLE testing from mid-September confirmed that the chemicals continuing to leak out at the outfall match the chemicals remaining on the Lockhart site.

The Lockhart bankruptcy trustee has filed a request with the bankruptcy court to restart operations at the Lockhart facility temporarily, probably to try to liquidate inventory at the site. On December 2nd, EPA filed an order against the Lockhart bankruptcy trustee, requiring that the trustee perform significant repairs and improvements to the waste storage system, as well as hire an environmental consultant and have EPA oversight, before the trustee would be allowed to resume operations at the site. EPA has jurisdiction in Federal bankruptcy court under the Clean Water Act, and has determined that there would be "substantial threat" of further discharge to the Flint River if operations at the Lockhart facility are restarted without repairs to the storage systems. We will update as this situation develops.