By Arpan Lobo
A federal judge declared a mistrial (click here) in the Flint water crisis civil trial Thursday when jurors informed the court they could not reach a unanimous verdict after weeks of deliberations.
Federal Magistrate Judge David Grand declared the mistrial after jurors presented a note saying “For the physical and emotional health of the jurors, we don’t believe we can continue with further deliberations … further deliberations will only result in stress and anxiety.”
The lawsuit was brought by four plaintiffs who were children when the water crisis began in 2014. The plaintiffs claimed two engineering firms working in Flint at the time of the water crisis, Veolia Water North America Operating Services (VNA) (click here) and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam Inc. (LAN) (click here) both failed to take adequate steps to respond to the lead contamination that struck the city....
The idea that no one is responsible for the poisoning of people that died of Legionnaires Disease and children brain damaged by lead is complete irresponsibility by the jury. These companies made a lot of money diverting dirty water into the pipes of Flint, Michigan.
There are multiple layers of responsibility in this sincere tragedy. This was not a mistake. The waters that came into Flint, Michigan came from one of the dirtiest waters in the country, the Flint River. It was done by despots in Lansing under the careful eye of Rick Snyder in his demands for the cities with negative bank balances to pay the price. In the case of most of these cities, the assets were sold until Snyder was satisfied. In the case of Flint, clean and trusted water was diverted because of the price it cost to obtain it and a well known contaminated river water was provided instead.
What is so hard about this? GM had brand new internal combustion engines in production for decades corroding after they were washed with water. It was the same water diverted into the City of Flint. To be completely honest, I can't believe an entire city was found dead for the degree of contamination of that river.
The people being held responsible in this civil case are not blameless. They are well educated engineers that open and close valves to water supplies all the time. This is not new to them. Lockwood, Andrews and Newman are a Texas firm. VNA, Veolia Water North America is an international water specialist firm (click here).
As a global expert in water operations, (click here) we manage municipal water and wastewater treatment facilities, as well as networks through PPP (Public-Private Partnerships) contracts (with local or state authorities), such as concession, BOT, DBO, O&M, lease contract, affermage...We support local authorities by optimizing cost of water, improving the quality of the service, and by co-building innovatives offers for communities.
From treating and recycling water and wastewater, Veolia Middle East aims to protect this precious resource: every drop of water counts! For that, once recycled, the water is reused for irrigation in resorts complexes, agriculture area, golf courses and fountains, or for industrials. Thus, we creates local circular economy loop helping cities and regions to preserve much of its water resources....
