A state-appointed emergency financial manager was running Flint in April 2014 when the city began using the Flint River to provide its drinking water after nearly 50 years of receiving water supplied by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. In one, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality engineer wrote to Flint water plant officials that partial drinking water samples showed the city to be above the “action level” for lead.
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Three city and state employees were charged in April. The officials were part of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
Residents of Flint, Michigan are one step closer to justice in the aftermath of the Flint Water Crisis.
“… Rosenthal was warned by Flint Water Treatment Plant officials that they were not ready for operations and was later warned by the EA that high levels of lead is usually due to particulate lead, signaling a corrosion problem”.
A lawyer for Mrs Shekter Smith said that the charges came as a surprise, saying that investigators will be “really hard-pressed to find that she did anything wrong, and certainly nothing criminally wrong”.
The employees are accused of purposely falsifying reports to hide lead contamination in Flint’s water supply.
The city moved its source of water back to Lake Huron a year ago, but concerns about contamination remain because the Flint River water damaged pipes and other infrastructure. In addition to the misconduct in office charges, there were willful neglect of duty and various conspiracy counts.
Charges were filed Friday morning in Flint District cour.
“These individuals concealed the truth”, Mr. Schuette continued.
Evidence gleaned from emails has been the main driver behind charges so far, but as Henning explained, live witness testimony will be essential in both validating or disproving the sentiments in them. “We’re a long way from done” he said.
“Scott and Peeler conspired together and with others known and unknown to effectively bury Larder’s report warranting further investigation”, Seipenko said in court.
Although filtered tap water in Flint is being deemed safe enough to drink by federal experts, health officials still recommend bottled water for children under five and pregnant women. The second report falsely indicated no statistically significant rise in blood lead levels of children in the summer of 2014.
Scott, 58, of Haslett, was charged with felony misconduct in office and conspiracy and misdemeanor willful neglect of duty. Schuette said Rosenthal and Cook were tasked with ensuring Flint had safe drinking water and “they failed” and misled health officials.
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DEQ official Mike Prysby, along side Stephen Busch, Flint’s water department supervisor, and the city’s water quality control supervisor, Mike Glasgow, were charged with multiple felonies related to the crisis, court documents show.
