Stephen Busch, District 8 water supervisor of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and Michael Prysby, District 8 water engineer for the DEQ, were both charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors related to alleged misconduct in office and tampering with evidence.
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If convicted, Glasgow faces up to five years in prison and $6,000 in fines, while Busch faces up to 15 years and $35,000 in fines, and Prysby faces up to 20 years and $45,000 in fines, court documents show.
That investigation led to charges against three people he says knowingly allowed people in Flint to drink harmful water.
Adding to this, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality did not treat the corrosive water, causing it to eat into the iron and lead pipes of the system, leaching lead into the drinking water supply.
Other charges also were lodged against Busch and Prysby, who have pleaded not guilty.
Attorneys for both men could not be reached to comment. Investigators are likely looking to see who knew what, when they found out about it and what they did when they got the information, he said.
“People should go to jail for what’s happened in Flint – but that doesn’t change the fact that we need our pipes fixed today”.
“I made it really clear Mike Glasgow was the only person who was helping us from the city”, she said. “But nobody is off limits, either”. “And you, as a parent, have failed your children, and you need to be responsible for us. Indeed, they failed us all”, Schuette said of the men charged.
Some critics have called for higher-ranking state officials, including Governor Rick Snyder, to be charged.
“We encouraged the investigations, and we’ve been cooperating”, Gov. Rick Snyder told reporters at the Capitol this morning.
“Whether the charges stick or not, I’ll believe it when I see it. I would like to see no let up in this, but who knows”.
Flint, Michigan’s, city utilities manager was among the first to be criminally charged for his role in the water crisis that has deprived the city of clean drinking water for two years.
In December 2015, Schuette (who is predicted to run for governor in 2018) declined to look into the contamination of the city’s water.
The task force faulted a wide range of officials in its report.
It’s action that the city’s mayor says the people have been waiting for.
Glasgow on Wednesday was placed on unpaid leave, city of Flint spokeswoman Kristin Moore said. There were at least 91 cases and 12 deaths across Genesee County, of which Flint is the county seat, during a 17-month period. That’s a fivefold increase over what the county averaged before. Snyder announced the firing of Liane Shekter Smith, the former chief of the DEQ’s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance. And the director of the EPA’s Midwest office in Chicago stepped down. So far, the MI state legislature has moved at a glacial pace to act on the majority of Snyder’s $195-million budget package to revitalize Flint, including new funding for water line replacement, according to the Detroit Free Press.
In Prysby’s case, a misconduct violation is for allegedly authorizing a permit for the operation of the Flint Water Treatment Plant knowing it was inadequately doing its job of providing safe drinking water.
Flint resident Laura McIntyre told CNN that it would be a “miscarriage of justice” if a few people took the fall for a larger group, including Snyder.
“It’s a victory”, Chatman said.
“You break the law, you spend time behind bars”. This sends a signal out to others. The governor and federal Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy were recently hauled before a House investigative committee and pummeled by Republicans and Democrats alike for botching the crisis.
“What I’ve said consistently from the beginning is this tragic situation was the result of bad decisions by bureaucrats”.
The story on Time’s website said: “Up against official ignorance and indifference, Edwards and Hanna-Attisha were right, they were fearless, and they were insistent”.
A week later, the Michigan National Guard begins helping distribute bottled water and filters, while Snyder asks the federal government for help.
Some researchers question whether chemical treatment and routine testing for lead in the water are enough, arguing that the only way to remove the threat is to replace the pipes.
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It’s an extraordinary step to haul mid-level public employees into court on such allegations, especially when the public’s perception of corruption typically involves bribes or other favors.
