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Flint Mayor Karen Weaver applauds Schuette for lawsuits in water crisis

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver applauds Schuette for lawsuits in water crisis
Posted at 12:37 PM, Jun 22, 2016
and last updated 2021-01-14 15:59:26-05

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver is applauding the Michigan attorney general and his team for holding people accountable in the ongoing water crisis.

Weaver held a press conference following Bill Schuette's announcement that lawsuits would be filed in connection to the Flint water crisis.

Lawsuits have been filed against Veolia and Lockwood, Andrews & Newman (LAN) for negligence and fraud.

Sources say the consultants were in a position to know and should have sounded warnings about the dangers of Flint water.

"Many things went tragically wrong in Flint, and both criminal conduct and civil conduct caused harm to the families of Flint and to the taxpayers of Michigan," said Schuette. "In Flint, Veolia and LAN were hired to do a job and failed miserably. Their fraudulent and dangerous recommendations made a bad situation worse.

Weaver said the city has a contract with LAN for services, and that they are now going to be taking a "serious look at it." 

The City of Flint switched to using the Flint River for water in April of 2014 to save money. That water was more corrosive and caused lead to leach from pipes into drinking water in the city of 100,000 people. The switch was authorized by the Emergency Manager appointed by Governor Rick Snyder.

The water was switched back to the Detroit water system in October of 2015, but the water is still not safe to drink and it is not known when it will be.