More Flint Water Crime Charges to Be Announced Friday

More criminal charges will be announced Friday in the Flint drinking water investigation, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office announced late Thursday.

Schuette and Todd Flood, the Royal Oak attorney heading the AG’s investigation, have called a news conference to take place at the University of Michigan-Flint.

In April, Schuette announced felony charges against two Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials and one city of Flint official. At that time, he promised more criminal charges would be forthcoming.

The city employee, Mike Glasgow, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor and is cooperating with the investigation as other charges were dropped. The two DEQ employees are awaiting preliminary examinations. He later brought a civil lawsuit against engineering and consulting firms who had consulted on the Flint Water Treatment Plant.

The civil lawsuit, filed in Flint in Genesee County Circuit Court, accuses engineering firm Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam and environmental consultant Veolia North America, plus related companies, of causing “the Flint Water Crisis to occur, continue and worsen.” Both companies have denied any wrongdoing and vowed to fight the lawsuit.

Flint’s drinking water became contaminated with lead in April 2014 after the city, while under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, switched from treated water supplied from Detroit to raw water from the Flint River, which was treated at the Flint Water Treatment Plant.

DEQ officials have acknowledged a mistake in failing to require corrosion control chemicals to be added to the water. As a result, lead leached from pipes, joints and fixtures into Flint households and harmful lead levels spiked in Flint children.