Michigan AG Sues Three Companies Over Flint Water Crisis

Updated at 2:15 p.m.

Flint, MI – Michigan’s Attorney General Bill Schuette filed civil charges Wednesday morning related to Flint’s lead-tainted water crisis.

The Detroit Free Press reports that Schuette filed a lawsuit against a water company and an engineering firm connected to the crisis, alleging the firms' "acts and omission constitute professional negligence, fraud and public nuisance."

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The lawsuit names three defendants, but two of the companies are related.

The civil lawsuit accuses the companies of causing "the Flint Water Crisis to occur, continue and worsen." The companies listed as defendants are Veolia North America; Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam; and Leo A. Daly Co., which is LAN's parent company.

“In Flint, Veolia and LAN were hired to do a job and failed miserably. Their fraudulent and dangerous recommendations made a bad situation worse."

There may be additional claims in the future against these or other companies.

The suit seeks to recover monetary damages, likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars, for harms caused by Veolia and LAN in Flint.

Flint's water crisis began when the city switched its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River in 2014 in an effort to save money.

Test results in June 2015 showed high levels of lead in Flint’s drinking water, and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality asked city officials to find water samples with low levels of lead and later told them to disqualify two samples with high readings. The move changed the overall lead level results to an acceptable amount.

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials have acknowledged the mistake in failing to require the city to properly treat its water supply.

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