The first criminal charges were issued against Mike Glasgow, utilities administrator at the city of Flint, Mike Prysby, water engineer at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Stephen Busch, water supervisor at the same department.
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Michigan Attorney General William Schuette at press conference announcing indictments related to Flint water crisis.
Prysby and Busch are charged with misconduct in office, conspiracy to tamper with evidence, tampering with evidence, a treatment violation of the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act and a monitoring violation of the Safe Drinking Water.
Flint employee Michael Glasgow is also charged with evidence tampering and willful neglect of office.
“When we prove these allegations, and we will, Mr. Busch and Mr. Prysby will be facing five years in prison for [misconduct in office], alone”, Schuette says.
Michigan Attorney Bill Schuette (SHOOT’-ee) says “no one is off the table” in his investigation of the Flint water crisis.
Prysby faces an additional felony charge of authorizing a permit for the Flint treatment plant, “knowing it would fail to provide clean and safe drinking water to families”, Schuette said.
Advocates echoed Kildee’s sentiment, and say Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder needs to be removed from office as a result of the water scandal that is also associated with an outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease in the town. which killed at least 10 people. According to the charges, they altered reports titled “Lead and Copper Report and Consumer Notice of Lead Result” dated February 27, 2015 July 28, 2015 and August 20, 2015.
When asked if he thinks he did anything wrong in the crisis, he said he does not believe so. “Our office has been cooperating with this investigation”.
House Democratic Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, who sits on the committee, said he supported the “common sense” legislation.
For almost 18 months after Flint’s water source was switched while the city was under state financial management, residents drank and bathed with improperly treated water that coursed through aging pipes and fixtures, releasing toxic lead. But lead is still present in many water systems across the country, and as a result, children and families are being put at risk.
For Flint residents, this may be a lot to soak in.
“We couldn’t be more proud of Dr. Marc Edwards and the work he has done, with his students and fellow researchers for over the past year, Time magazine is just another honor of the really incredible work he has done”, Mark Owczarski, spokesperson for Virginia Tech said. “Today, today we are announcing we filed criminal charges in the Flint Water Crisis against three individuals”.
His attorney, Robert Harrison, said he has not received a copy of the warrant and complaint filed against his client, and most of what he knows is what’s been in the news.
Weaver is championing the city’s “Fast Start” program with a commitment of funding from the state to replace lead service lines suspected of having poisoned the city’s water supply, but it’s off to a slow start.
Some critics have called for higher-ranking state officials, including Governor Rick Snyder, to be charged. A standard water treatment process was ignored, causing lead from old pipes to leach into the drinking water.
But the special prosecutor appointed to investigate, Todd Flood, said he isn’t buying Glasgow’s defense, comparing it to the excuses used by Nazi war criminals.
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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”. “They look at me and they wonder if there is any truth to this investigation. I will reiterate this to management above me, but they seem to have their own agenda”.
