Criminal charges against employees associated with the Flint water crisis will be announced today by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette.
The felony and misdemeanor charges are primarily related to how the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the City of Flint reported lead level findings in accordance with the federal Lead and Copper rule.
According to the rule, testing and reporting the results should have been done on homes with known lead service lines. It is alleged that officials signed off on documentation indicating the testing was done in accordance with procedure when in fact it wasn’t, leading to reports with artificially low levels of lead contamination. The Flint official who signed and submitted the documentation with the fraudulent levels is expected to be charged.
Outrage continues to grow at Republican Governor Rick Snyder. Flint was under emergency management by order of Snyder. His appointee, Darnell Early, orchestrated the switch from the Detroit water supply to one from the Flint River. Whether or not high level officials associated with the botched handling of the water supply are charged remains to be seen.
The charges announced today may be the first of more to come. State and local agencies connected with the water crisis continue to be under investigation. A special counsel was appointed because the Attorney General is representing Governor Snyder in several lawsuits associated with the water debacle.
In a report issued last month by the Flint Water Advisory Task Force, blame was aimed directly at state government. In the letter to Gov. Snyder accompanying the comprehensive report, they had this to say:
“The causes of the crisis lie primarily at the feet of the state by virtue of its agencies’ failures and its appointed emergency managers’ misjudgments.”
The task force did not address the financial liability associated with the negligence and incompetence of the agencies involved.
