Busch, 40, and Prysby, 53, were charged with five and six counts, respectively, including misconduct in office, tampering with evidence and violation of the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act, the court documents said.
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Flint utilities administrator Michael Glasgow also was charged Wednesday with tampering with evidence for allegedly falsifying lead water-testing results and with wilful neglect of duty.
Allegations suggest records were changed in order to cover up positive lead results.
The Detroit Free Press and the Associated Press, citing sources close the investigation, reported that Schuette plans to file criminal charges against a Flint employee and potentially other people.
Susan Hedman, the director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chicago-based Midwest office, also resigned.
But the water from the Flint River was more corrosive than Lake Huron’s water and the pipes began leeching lead. Busch was the Lansing district coordinator the DEQ’s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance.
The treatment violation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, a misdemeanor, relates to failing to require the addition of corrosion control chemicals, the complaint alleges. Flint used the Flint River for 18 months but didn’t treat the water to reduce corrosion.
“We continue to pay sky-high water bills and lack basic access to water that we can trust”, Shariff said.
MI governor Rick Snyder has pledged to spend $360 million helping the city recover from the crisis that switch created.
The governor has also vowed to drink filtered water from Flint for 30 days to prove it is safe.
During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Schuetteannounced that he was bringing charges against the 3 individuals, adding, “thesecharges are only the beginning and there will be more to come”.
Gov. Rick Snyder didn’t acknowledge the problem until last fall, when tests revealed high levels of lead in children, in whom the heavy metal can cause low IQs and behavioural problems.
Two state employees charged with crimes in the Flint water debacle have pleaded not guilty.
The state and city are now treating the pipes with higher levels of phosphates in an effort to build up a protective coating that will prevent lead from further leaching.
Two state officials and one city employee will face criminal charges for their roles in the mass poisoning of Flint, Michigan, the state’s attorney general announced on Wednesday.
Asked if she feels that someone needs to go to prison for the water crisis, Weaver said “somebody needs to be held accountable and it sounds like more than one person that needs to be”. And so Wednesday’s charges offer no absolution for the governor.
Todd Flood, the special assistant attorney general who is investigating, warned that more charges were likely. Busch cautioned that difficulty of treating the Flint River water could result in carcinogen exposure for residents – something that happened promptly after the switch, when treatment workers overdosed the water with a disinfectant.
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“Thus, virtually all homes in Flint must be considered at risk, at the present time, for elevated lead in water”, researchers wrote in a summary of their findings, “unless the homeowner is certain that there is no lead plumbing…in the home”.
