A Judge Rules Flint Residents Can Sue Over Water Crisis!
Source: cnn / CNN
A judge ruled today that the residents of Flint, Michigan can move forward with lawsuits filed against the federal government due to the ongoing water crisis. This motion is a huge victory in the fight for justice for residents who have had their water supply contaminated with lead for a number of years!
More than a dozen lawsuits, which includes class-action cases, were filed against Michigan and the City of Flint after the city’s water was found to be contaminated with lead in 2014 and 2015. One lawsuit alleges the state hadn’t treated the water with an anti-corrosive agent, in violation of federal law.
The lawsuits claim that the Environmental Protection Agency moved without urgency to intervene in the crisis. Today, Judge Linda V. Parker ruled the federal government is not immune from legal action in the case either.
“The impact on the health of the nearly 100,000 residents of the City of Flint remains untold,” Judge Parker wrote in Thursday’s opinion and order. “It is anticipated, however, that the injury caused by the lead-contaminated public water supply system will affect the residents for years and likely generations to come.”
The lawsuits against the federal government allege the EPA “negligently responded to the water crisis,” according to the court ruling.
The judge wrote that “The EPA was well aware that the Flint River was highly corrosive and posed a significant danger of lead leaching” into residents’ homes.
She went further to mention that the EPA also knew the health risks posed by lead exposure and that Flint officials “were not warning Flint’s residents that they were being supplied lead-laced water. Quite to the contrary, the EPA learned that State and local officials were misleading residents to believe that there was nothing wrong with the water supply,” the judge wrote.
Residents of Flint, Michigan Can Now Sue The Federal Government!! was originally published on mycolumbuspower.com
