Two officials with Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality, Stephen Busch and Michael Prysby, will also face charges of evidence tampering, along with misconduct and violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
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The maximum penalties allowed for the other charges against Busch and Prysby are five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for the misconduct count, four years and $10,000 for the conspiracy count, four years and $5,000 for the tampering count, and one year each for the Safe Drinking Water Act violations.
Flint utilities administrator Michael Glasgow also was charged with tampering with evidence for changing lead water-testing results and wilful neglect of duty as a public servant.
The charges were the first levied in an ongoing investigation into the Flint water crisis.
Prysby received an additional felony charge of authorizing the operation of the Flint water treatment center “knowing that the plant would fail to provide clean and safe drinking water to families of Flint”. Two months later, in March, Busch cautioned that “Continuous use of the Flint River at such demand rates would: Pose an increased microbial risk to public health…”
Attorney General Bill Schuette declined to answer when asked in Flint whether Gov. Rick Snyder had been interviewed during the criminal probe into the water crisis.
In a legislative hearing, Glasgow said Prysby told him a year of water testing was required before a decision could be made on whether corrosion controls were needed. “They failed us all”.
“These charges are only the beginning, and there will be more to come, I guarantee you”, Schuette said Wednesday.
“Yes charges are being filed”, said Melissa Mays. Snyder says he’ll comment later Wednesday. In addition, they said, lead levels throughout Flint’s water system are “highly variable”.
The individuals being charged are connected with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the City of Flint. “It’s highly unusual for agency personnel charged with enforcing a law to be found tampering with evidence to the level at which a city’s water supply ends up being poisoned”.
“They failed MI families; indeed, they failed us all”, Schuette said.
Nearly 18 months ago, officials switched Flint’s water source and residents began drinking and bathing with water tainted with toxic lead. He said there is “no target and no one is off the table”. The attorney general is not free from political ambition – he is expected to run for the governor’s seat in 2018 – and it’s all but impossible to see political calculation in this investigation. Rick Snyder’s unelected emergency managers who were only interested in cutting costs took our voices away from us while we were forced to drink poisonous water.
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As the investigations continue, Snyder said MDEQ’s director will review whether it is appropriate to continue to pay for their legal fees. Some still do not trust what comes out of their faucets, even though the city rejoined the Detroit-area water system last fall and anticorrosive phosphates are being added.
