Michigan State Department of Environmental Quality district water manager Stephen Busch and district water planner Mike Prysby are the other two employees facing charges, at this time.
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Mike Glasgow, a former laboratory and water quality supervisor who now serves as the city’s utilities administrator, MDEQ district water supervisor Stephen Busch, and district water engineer Mike Prysby are the first to face legal consequences in the poisoning of an entire town.
“You have to now prove exactly what they did that violated the law”. According to Schuette from approximately January 2015 through November 2015, Busch and Prysby conspired, combined, confederated and agreed together with others, both known and unknown, to tamper with evidence, including but not limited to manipulating monitoring reports mandated by law.
“Today’s criminal charges are one step to bringing justice to Flint families who are the victims of this bad tragedy”, he added. The two men also are charged with misdemeanor violations of the state’s drinking water regulations.
MacIntyre, a Flint resident who said the water crisis makes her fear for the safety of her three children, said it would be a “miscarriage of justice” if Snyder isn’t charged.
Schuette also made it clear that there would be more charges forthcoming.
“There’s a tragic situation that’s happened, now we have to wait and see”, Snyder said.
MARCH: Flint promises to spend $2.24 million on immediate improvements to its water supply.
Holman did say he couldn’t speak on April 20 charges specifically or if this was the case with those particular state employees.
The city’s water issue started in 2014 when they switched from Detroit’s drinking water to the Flint river.
The individuals being charged are connected with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the City of Flint.
“Governor Snyder can hold all the photo ops he wants drinking filtered water now, but that doesn’t help the residents of Flint who were drinking poisoned, unfiltered water for more than a year”, said Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. In addition they are charged with authorizing a permit to the Flint Water Treatment Plant knowing the facility “was deficient in its ability to provide clean and safe drinking water”.
Flint’s water became tainted with lead two years ago after the city began using a different water supply to save money without proper treatment.
Hanna-Attisha reported high lead levels in children’s blood after state agencies initially dismissed her concerns.
For Flint residents, this may be a lot to soak in.
He reiterated that his office has been fully cooperative in the investigation and that the investigation isn’t complete yet.
They both were charged with a misdemeanor violation of the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act for allegedly ceasing the utilization of optimal corrosion control treatment at the Flint Water Treatment Plant after the plant switched to the Flint River as a water source and refused to mandate optimized corrosion control treatment at the Flint Water Treatment Plant in a timely manner after the lead action level was exceeded.
A theory suggests that MI officials could have changed sample data, to show lower levels of lead in the water of Flint, according to emails issued by investigators from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, who requested a Freedom of Information Act, said CNN. At a time when the city was drawing its water from the Flint River and failing to treat it to prevent corrosion, sampling was being conducted at homes that did not have lead service lines – part of the testing criteria.
The charges stem from an ongoing investigation into the contamination of Flint’s tap water. The main thing is they are trying to keep this quiet, especially on the federal level because the lead problem is everywhere.
After Wednesday, we know that state and city officials will be held accountable for their actions. For government officials, there’s no telling how far up-stream the evidence will lead.
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“If you have a duty and you breach that duty, [and] because of the gross negligence of that breach someone died, and you can show the proximate cause of that death reached to the breach, then you can have involuntary manslaughter”, Flood said in February.
