By Zahra Ahmad
January 26, 2016 (click here) - Elizabeth Tramble worries about how the lead in Flint's drinking water will affect her children.
Flint - Criminal charges (click here) against two of the three remaining Flint water crisis cases were dismissed Wednesday, Dec. 18.
Judge David Goggins dismissed charges against Steven Busch and Michael Prysby, two former state environmental officials, after reviewing their cases. The two former officials worked for Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and had oversight responsibility for Flint’s water system after it began using the Flint River as its water source in 2014 and 2015.
Both men took plea deals with former special prosecutor Todd Flood a year ago, pleading no contest to misdemeanors that were to be reviewed and potentially dismissed a year later.
Molly Kettler, special assistant to the attorney general, said the men will have no lasting legal consequences because of the plea deals made by the former prosecution team. Kettler was assigned by Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud to replace the former prosecution team led by Flood and to hold government officials accountable for Flint’s water crisis.
“I must say, in all candor to the court and to everyone here, in well over 25 years of practicing law I’ve never seen anything like this,” Kettler said. “These pleas were taken when the prior prosecuting authority brought the defendants here to court the day after Christmas without making any announcements so the victims could be here or so that the public was aware of it.”
After Flood was fired as special prosecutor by Hammoud, pending criminal cases against eight defendants were dismissed and the unresolved plea agreements with Busch, Prysby and another DEQ official -- Liane Shekter-Smith -- were left in limbo....
It doesn't sound as though the state is dismissing RESPONSIBILITY for the water poisoning, so much as reassessing the entire dynamics. It seems as though more prosecutions will be forthcoming.
Criminal charges (click here) were filed against two Michigan Department of Environmental Quality regulators, Mike Prysby and Stephen Busch, and a former Flint water treatment plant supervisor, Mike Glasgow—the result of an investigation that began in January (3). Prysby and Busch face several charges, including: tampering and conspiracy, misconduct, and violating state water treatment and monitoring laws. Prysby was an engineer with the MDEQ who reportedly approved the water switch despite the treatment plant’s deficiencies. Glasgow, accused of altering lead water-monitoring results, was charged with tampering with evidence and “willful neglect of duty as a public servant”(4), however he has now reached a plea agreement. Glasgow agreed to plead no contest to the charge of willful neglect of duty (the tampering charge will be dropped) in exchange for his cooperation with the prosecutor’s ongoing investigation (6).
Prysby, Busch and Glasgow were all privy to emails that discussed water quality and the challenges they faced with the switch....
...Are they the sole culprits in this tragic series of events?While the process to remove lead pipes continues to move at a snail’s pace, the lead will remain a constant threat. In fact, one of Flint’s highest readings yet (22,905 ppb!) was recorded in a house as recently as April 2016(7). The federal Lead and Copper rule sets the legal threshold at 15 ppb. The EPA acknowledges that the pipe replacement is a “long-term goal,” thus the rallying cry to #FlushforFlint was born—calling on residents to flush their pipes for 5 minutes every morning for 14 days (8). This story is far from over. There will unfortunately be an enduring need for health and educational interventions for anyone with lead exposure....
By Steve Carmody
Two third graders (click here) at Neithercut Elementary in Flint play checkers on a tablet. Neveah Wilson (left) and Elizabeth Dexter are both bright, outgoing leaders in their classroom. But teaching often gets interrupted to deal with behavior issues, especially toward the end of the day. The school district has seen a steady increase in special needs since the water crisis, and is now nearing 28% special education, according to the superintendent.
State prosecutors (click here) are still not saying when to expect new criminal charges in the Flint water crisis probe.
Thursday evening, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley in cutting a ribbon officially opening the department’s new office in Flint. The office will handle multiple jobs. But its highest profile mission is related to the investigation into Flint’s water crisis.
The switch of Flint’s drinking water source exposed city residents to high levels of lead and other contaminants. The county also experienced a spike in cases of Legionnaires Disease. At least 12 people died.
Under the previous state Attorney General, more than a dozen government officials were criminally charged. About half reached plea deals with prosecutors in exchange for their cooperation, but no one spent a day in jail.
Six months ago, Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud dropped criminal charges against a half dozen government officials. The decision meant restarting the investigation from scratch. She blames the previous investigative team for the need to start over from square one...
...Next April will mark the sixth anniversary of Flint’s drinking water switch.
From the article of Neithercut Elementary:
...Rising rate of special needs post-water crisis
Five years ago, during the water crisis, the kids currently in Flint’s kindergarten and elementary classrooms were babies and toddlers, the population most vulnerable to lead exposure. Some may have spent their infancy drinking formula mixed with lead-tainted tap water, month after month.
Even low levels of childhood lead exposure have been linked to decreases in IQ. Elevated lead levels in the blood may raise the risk for ADHD and developmental delays. Numerous studies say it can also increase aggression and reduce impulse control, and according to the CDC, some researchers have found a “direct association between BLLs [blood lead levels] and poorer performance on tasks requiring focused attention, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition of automatic response.”
Flint’s superintendent, Derrick Lopez, says that’s what’s happening in these schools....
