Skip to footer

Flint families seek financial compensation for lead crisis

A federal lawsuit alleges that tens of thousands of residents of Flint, Mich., have suffered physical and economic injuries and damages as a result of exposure to lead in the city's drinking water.

|
Paul Sancya/AP/File
Gov. Rick Snyder speaks after attending a Flint Water Interagency Coordinating Committee meeting in Flint, Mich., Feb. 26. A lawsuit stemming from Flint's lead-contaminated water was filed Monday, on behalf of the city's residents against Governor Snyder as well as other current and former government officials and corporations. The federal lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, alleges that tens of thousands of residents have suffered physical and economic injuries and damages.

Citing the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency's Lead and Copper Rule, seven families in Flint have filed a lawsuit against Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, as well as other current and former government officials and corporations.

The federal lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, alleges that tens of thousands of residents have suffered physical and economic injuries and damages as a result of exposure to lead in the city's drinking water. The families accuse officials of downplaying the severity of the contamination, and failing to take action over the dangerous levels of lead in drinking water.

Governor Snyder's spokesman Ari Adler said the administration is focused on solutions for the people of Flint, and won’t comment on pending litigation.

The suit is the latest in a tide of litigation spawned by the crisis.

In January, a series of suits were filed against Governor Rick Snyder, former Flint emergency managers Darnell Earley and Jerry Ambrose, the state Department of Environmental Quality, and the state Department of Health & Human Services.

Two recall petitions targeting Snyder over the water crisis have been approved. The latest was filed by a Flint activist and approved Monday by the Board of State Canvassers, and other recall petition, filed by a Detroit pastor, was approved last month.

The state auditor general released a report Friday, revealing that state environmental regulators made crucial errors as Flint began using a new source of new drinking water that was so corrosive it caused lead to flow from the pipes and out of residents' taps. The report says that staffers in the Department of Environmental Quality's drinking water office failed to order the city to treat its water with anti-corrosion chemicals as it switched to the Flint river in April 2014, but notes that the rules they failed to heed may not be strong enough to protect the public.

The water crisis began in 2014 when the city was cut out of Detroit’s water system, which is sourced by a treated supply from Lake Huron, and was forced to use the Flint River as a temporary source. The Flint River water was later discovered to be highly corrosive. The city’s water supply was switched back to Detroit water last October with officials later declaring a city- and countywide public health state of emergency.

The Union Labor Life Insurance Co. has committed to bring $25 million in low-cost loans to help remove lead pipes and improve water quality. The loans will be directed to the Fast Start initiative that's designed to replace all lead service lines in the city, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver announced Sunday.

This report contains materials from the Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Flint families seek financial compensation for lead crisis
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2016/0308/Flint-families-seek-financial-compensation-for-lead-crisis
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe