(Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)
6 state employees criminally charged in Flint water crisis.
DEQ officials have acknowledged a mistake in failing to require corrosion control chemicals to be added to the water
Robert Allen, Detroit Free Press , WZZM 6:35 AM. PDT July 29, 2016
FLINT, MICH. - Six state employees were criminally charged this morning in connection with the Flint water crisis.
Charged are Michigan Department of Health and Human Services workers Nancy Peeler, Corinne Miller and Robert Scott, and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality employees Leanne Smith; Adam Rosenthal and Patrick Cook.
In April, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced felony charges against two Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials and one City of Flint official. At that time, he promised more criminal charges would be forthcoming.
The city employee, Mike Glasgow, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor and is cooperating with the investigation as other charges were dropped. The two DEQ employees, Stephen Busch and Mike Prysby, are awaiting preliminary examinations.
He later brought a civil lawsuit against engineering and consulting firms who had consulted on the Flint Water Treatment Plant.
The civil lawsuit, filed in Flint in Genesee County Circuit Court, accuses engineering firm Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam and environmental consultant Veolia North America, plus related companies, of causing "the Flint Water Crisis to occur, continue and worsen." Both companies have denied any wrongdoing and vowed to fight the lawsuit.
Flint's drinking water became contaminated in lead in April 2014 after the city, while under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, switched from treated water supplied from Detroit to raw water from the Flint River, which was treated at the Flint Water Treatment Plant.
DEQ officials have acknowledged a mistake in failing to require corrosion control chemicals to be added to the water. As a result, lead leached from pipes, joints and fixtures into Flint households and harmful lead levels spiked in Flint children.