It applies to everybody, equally, no matter who you are. “Providing justice to families of Flint means accountability. Period. Those who committed crimes will be held accountable”.
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Federal regulators say that filtered tap water is now safe to drink, but they still recommend bottled water for young children and pregnant women.
The highest ranked official charged is Liane Shekter Smith, who was sacked in February from her post as chief of Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality.
The announcement comes three months after three separate officials were charged in the water contamination crisis. Children in the area were found to have elevated levels of lead and other toxins in their bodies.
– Progress Michigan (@ProgressMich) July 29, 2016#FlintWaterCrisis Criminal charges for 6 state employees, but Snyder remains untouched, why when his cost cutting measures are to blame?
He said reports that the Flint water plant was out of compliance were ignored and said Shekter Smith deliberately misled officials.
Cook was subsequently aware of the problems with Flint’s water, investigators said, but took no corrective action. For decades, the once-thriving industrial city used water piped in from Lake Huron, with anti-corrosion chemicals added along the way by Detroit water officials. That allowed lead and other substances such as iron to leach from aging pipes into the drinking water. She wrote: “We don’t believe that our data demonstrates an increase in lead-poisoning rates that might be attributable to the change in water source for Flint”. That report, created on July 28, 2015 using sound scientific principles, showed a significant spike -higher than usual – in blood lead tests for Flint children for the summer of 2014. He said Miller has left the health department, but Peeler and Scott are still employed.
Shekter Smiths attorney, Brian Morley, said Friday that he was surprised she was charged.
Rosenthal was an environmental quality analyst with the Office of Drinking Water Municipal Assistance at MDEQ, and Cook was a professional engineer in that office.
Flint’s water still has unsafe levels of lead, meaning water samples from more than 10 percent of homes contained above 15 parts per billion lead in the most recent round of testing. The city remained on that water supply for 18 months, despite complaints from residents. Back in April, three others, two coming from the DEQ and the other from the city of Flint itself, also faced charges. The two other state employees, Mike Brysby and Stephen Busch, have not had their hearings yet. DEQ and MDHHS will continue to monitor the legal proceedings and evaluate next steps as appropriate.
In April of 2014, the water in Flint, Michigan, was contaminated with lead when the city started using untreated water from the Flint River instead of treated water from Detroit.
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When Schuette announced this week that he was handing down more criminal charges, speculation loomed over whether he would seek to indict higher-level officials or politicians.
