J-M Manufacturing Co. Inc.

The jury deadlocked over awarding monetary damages to the first group of cities and water districts claiming to have received PVC products of questionable quality.

PVC pipe extruder JM Eagle has won a court case against a law firm that had been representing the company. The law firm may be required to pay JM Eagle up to $5.7 million in fees and interest.

Flint is on a long road to recovery from the water crisis that caused lead to leach into the system in 2014 and still has residents drinking only filtered or bottled water.

The qualities of polyethylene pipe are piquing the interest of more civil engineers of potable water systems in North America.

The bids to replace lead service lines with copper pipes at 500 homes considered the highest risk for lead exposure in Flint, Mich., came in “extremely high,” according to Mayor Karen Weaver, whose staff is supposed to meet again this week with potential contractors.

A retired general who is coordinating the effort to get the lead out of Flint water lines said plastic pipes are being studied for possible use in the city reeling from two years of contamination problems.

JM Eagle has offered millions of dollars worth of free pipes that could replace lead-leaching pipes in Flint, Mich., but regulations and other complications are adding up to the possibility that the proposal may never get serious consideration.

The “celebratory” news release issued 2½ years ago by the law firm representing government entities in the whistleblower trial against plastic pipe producer J-M Manufacturing Co. may have been self-promoting “puffery” but it “falls comfortably within the permissible degree” of literary license.

More than a month has passed and no action has been taken on JM Eagles' offer to provide free plastic pipe to help the beleaguered city of Flint, Mich., deal with its lead-tainted drinking water crisis — even as local officials look to fund an estimated $55 million of service line replacements.