“This is an important step forward for providing a stable water system for the City of Flint”.
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“I guaranteed you there will be more charges to come and there will”, Schuette said. Over the last two months, officials have been testing lead levels in water from across the city to determine how well the filters are working.
Gov. Rick Snyder, who was on hand for the announcement at City Hall, said the 3-mile pipeline likely will cost about $7 million and that the state will provide about $4.2 million of the cost through grants. On Monday (June 20) the city issued a precautionary boil water advisory, urging some residents to boil filtered water.
“The company is disappointed that the Attorney General has taken this action and will vigorously defend itself against these unwarranted allegations of wrongdoing.”
The attorney general’s office also accuses Veolia of fraud in its interim 2015 report indicating that the city’s water was safe.
Under the January emergency declaration – which was extended through mid-August – the Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided the state with more than 50,000 filters and over 243,000 filter replacement cartridges for distribution in Flint. He admits coming up with the data showing filters screen out much of the lead in Flint tap water is only part what authorities have to do.
Based on EPA’s findings and previous independent filter testing by Virginia Tech University researchers and NSF International which certifies water filters, all local, state and federal agencies involved in the Flint crisis response agree that the use of these NSF verified filters makes water safe from lead for all populations. “They failed miserably in their job, basically botched it”, said Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette.
Flint’s supply was switched from Detroit water to the Flint River as a cost-cutting measure in 2014, but the water was not properly treated and that resulted in the corrosion of lead pipes and elevated lead levels in several of hte city’s children. Flint returned to the Detroit system in October 2015.
Furthermore, a report by Veolia in March “not only missed the problem, its root cause, and the public health implications, it also offered recommendations that made the problem worse”.
In an email to The Two-Way, a LAN spokesman says that Schuette “blatantly mischaracterized the role of LAN’s service in Flint”.
While the civil investigation might not lead to a definite conclusion, Dr. Scorsone says he’s curious to see how the courts view outside firms’ responsibility for alerting officials about high lead levels in the city’s water.
Once Snyder signs budget legislation, MI will have allocated at least $240 million to resolve the water crisis in Flint.
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