Michigan AG: Manslaughter Charges Possible

Not only are they being overcharged, many face punishment for not paying for the city’s poisoned water. In a December 29 letter to Gov. Rick Snyder, a task force he appointed to investigate the Flint water crisis faulted the DEQ for a “single-minded legalistic” reading of the federal rule.

The governor told reporters January 27 that much work has to be done to determine the location of lead service lines and calculate how much it will take to remove them.

The cash-strapped city was reportedly hoping to save $5 million over two years by drawing water from the Flint River beginning in April 2014 rather than continuing to buy it from nearby Detroit.

Schuette said Tuesday that Michigan’s public-records law should be expanded to include the governor’s office because of the Flint disaster.

Snyder and Earley have repeatedly tried to dodge any accountability for their roles in the crisis.

He has said he wants to discuss with legislators bills to subject his office and their offices to Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act.

“If you have a duty and you breach that duty, [and] because of the gross negligence of that breach someone died, and you can show the proximate cause of that death reached to the breach, then you can have involuntary manslaughter”.

Last week, the EPA’s acting water chief Joel Beauvais told Congress that MI – under the leadership of Snyder, a Republican – had ignored federal advice to treat Flint’s water for corrosive elements, which are believed to have eroded old lead pipes and contaminated drinking water.

Flood says restitution will be a “very big issue” to ensure the people are held accountable.

Residents have long realized that something was wrong – they just didn’t know exactly what.

A Flint, Michigan couple is suing city, state, and government officials after their 2-year-old daughter tested positive for lead poisoning, and say the city lied to its residents and put children, like their daughter Sophia, in harm’s way.

Weaver said at a news conference on Tuesday that the work is expected to cost $55 million. Mayor Karen Weaver said households where residents are deemed to be high-risk will be given priority.

Flint did not apply for financing through the state Drinking Water State Revolving Fund past year, for which the DEQ committed to 33 loans totaling $240 million to other communities, including Detroit and Pontiac. “We owe it to our children to make it happen as soon as possible”.

“We are going to restore safe drinking water one house at a time, one child at a time until the lead pipes are gone”, she said. United Way of Genesee County has been at the forefront of distributing thousands of filtration pitchers, faucet mount filters, replacement cartridges and truckloads of water to underserved populations to address immediate needs in Flint Michigan.

Lead is a toxic metal that was used for many years in products found in and around homes and may cause health effects such as behavioral problems and learning disabilities, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.