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Legal system acts but water crisis isn’t over

By Starla Muhammad -Assistant Editor- | Last updated: Apr 28, 2016 - 10:17:52 AM

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Graphic: MGN Online

Despite criminal charges filed by Michigan’s attorney general against three officials in connection to the Flint Water Crisis, the sentiment among activists and residents is that everyone involved must be held accountable. They are also quick to point out the crisis is far from over for those still living with fear and uncertainty in this small city.  

Attorney General William Schuette announced that a total of 13 felony charges and five misdemeanor charges were filed against two state and one city employee; Stephen Busch, 40, and Michael Prysby, 53, of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Michael Glasgow, 40, Flint’s laboratory and water supervisor.

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This photo from March 22, 2016 shows samples of Flint, Michigan water.
“These charges are only the beginning and there will be more to come. That I can guarantee you,” said Atty. Schuette during an April 20 press conference. 

The fallout is ongoing from the 2014 decision by local and state officials, including an emergency manager appointed by Governor Rick Snyder to switch Flint’s water source from the fresh water of Lake Huron to the polluted Flint River in order to save money. Residents immediately began complaining about the look, smell and taste of the water which was later discovered to be tainted with lead and other toxins causing illnesses in residents. A series of failures at local and state levels is blamed for the crisis with many pointing fingers directly at the governor.      

Atty. Schuette said Mr. Busch and Mr. Prysby misled federal and local authorities, regulatory officials and failed to provide safe and clean water to residents. He also accused the men of tampering with and manipulating levels on certain water samples in homes of residents and altering or concealing test results for lead levels. He accused Mr. Glasgow of altering and falsifying reports to the Environmental Protection Agency.  Glasgow has since said he was instructed by superiors to remove certain lead level readings off of reports.  

Charges filed included misconduct in office, conspiracy of tampering with evidence, treatment violations and monitoring violations associated with the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act and willful neglect of duty. Busch was charged with three felonies, two misdemeanors, Prysby with four felonies, two misdemeanors and Glasgow with one felony, one misdemeanor. If convicted each felony count is punishable by upward to four to five years in prison and/or fines ranging from $5,000 – 10,000. Each misdemeanor is punishable by one year in prison and/or $5,000 for each day of violation.

Dangerously high lead levels have been detected in Flint’s children since the water crises. Over 90 cases of Legionnaires disease, a bacteria that causes inflammation in the lungs and caused 12 deaths in Genesee County has not been definitively linked to Flint’s poisoned water but has not been ruled out.

Mr. Busch and Mr. Prysby pleaded not guilty during their April 20 arraignments in the 67th District Court in Flint. As of Final Call presstime, Mr. Glasgow had not been arraigned.

While these charges are a start, others are adamant all responsible party’s including Gov. Snyder must eventually also be charged. When he testified in mid-March before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington, D.C. about his role, Gov. Snyder said a state investigation had “uncovered systemic failures at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.”

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Activist Michael Moore expresses his discontent with the state of affairs in Flint, MI, via Facebook
“The fact is, bureaucrats created a culture that valued technical compliance over common sense — and the result was that lead was leaching into residents’ water,” said Gov. Snyder on March 17.

Prior to leaving April 23 on a week-long European trade trip overseas, he had promised to drink Flint water at his home and office for 30 days. Gov. Snyder called the criminal charges “deeply troubling.”

“I have fully supported the efforts of these investigations. I have demanded more answers about what happened because the people of Flint and all of Michigan deserve to know the truth. We will vigorously pursue any evidence of wrongdoing and we will hold people accountable,” he said in a statement.

“I won’t be satisfied until the governor is charged with a crime against humanity,” documentary producer and writer Rahiem Shabazz said April 21 via Twitter.

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver released a statement that Mr. Glasgow was placed on administrative leave, adding that every person is considered innocent until proven guilty.  

“The community of Flint has suffered from this man-made water disaster for two years now. I feel it’s important and necessary for those who played a part in this crisis to be held accountable,” said Mayor Weaver.

“There is plenty of blame to go around, from state policies that cut revenue sharing to cities such as Flint (where we have lost $63 million in the past 15 years), to state budget cuts that the U.S. EPA said diminished the ability of the state’s water quality enforcement operations. I’m not here to make judgements on anyone, but I do want the facts and I think the citizens of Flint deserve that,” the statement continued.

Still in a battle

For Flint residents who are still under a water emergency, their ordeal continues and despite assurances their water is safe to use with filters, many are still afraid to drink the water and still rely heavily on bottled water daily. 

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Protestors calls for arresting Michigan Governor Rick Snyder for suffering endured in Flint, MI water crisis
“As we fight this battle, we have no government help and when I say that, from the NAACP’s perspective, it seems as if there’s no empowerment of the citizens that have been damaged, no empowerment of the mayor who was elected by the people to make sure that the resources that are coming in here impact the folks that have been impacted,” said Frances L. Gilcreast, president of the Flint NAACP.  She said for now, the water emergency will last at least through August.

The millions of dollars allocated for the water crisis is being directed not by the mayor or local authorities but from the governor and other officials, said Ms. Gilcreast.

“That’s a slap in the face to us again as citizens of the city that you would empower those that put us into this position in the first place. The good old boys network, they are the ones designing with the governor’s help, our rescue efforts” she said.

For example, she explained, Mayor Weaver proposed the Fast Start Program that identified households with young people and pregnant women in them that needed the lead service lines replaced in their homes. Gov. Snyder hired the engineering firm, she said.

“It was a no bid contract. We don’t know what he paid them so that’s what we’re facing. We don’t know who’s doing what. Those same firms, folks that have opportunities here that have those same businesses, he’s not allowed them the opportunity to even bid on it, to do the lead extraction. We’ve got companies here that have the wherewithal to be able to do this that are minority companies but he decided who did it and I don’t know what they charged him to do it. ” Flint, a majority-Black city with a population of 99,000, median income of $24,679 and a 41.6 percent poverty level is still struggling.

According to Ms. Gilcreast there were not many Black-owned businesses in the city before the water crises but now, restaurants, barber shops and beauty salons have been forced to shut down operations as a result.

Ken McCloud lives in Flint with his fiancé and three sons and said the lack of empathy by those in decision-making positions throughout this ordeal is “outrageous”.  Mr. McCloud has been actively involved in protests from the beginning even traveling to Washington, D.C. He is taking a wait and see approach when it comes to the three men charged but cautioned that it cannot be a distraction from what is still happening. 

“I’m staying focused on Snyder because I feel that all the distractions done went from Snyder to the little man on the pole so sure they’re trying to hold people responsible but at the same time, the attention is off of Snyder for some reason,” he explained.

“There’s still so much more going on here that the public don’t know,” said Mr. McCloud. The readings he received from the EPA about his water differed from Water Defense, a non-profit organization, taken two days earlier, he said.

“The EPA sent us the levels in the mail the other day. Now what is contradictory is the EPA levels are saying one thing that the water is healthy and it’s clear to drink but Water Defense is saying this water is not good enough to bathe, drink or cook with,”  said Mr. McCloud.

There are still active calls for Gov. Snyder to resign or be recalled. Film director Michael Moore, a Flint native, posted a petition on his website calling for the governor’s resignation and  arrest which to date has garnered 616,776 signatures.

When asked what feedback she is receiving from residents about Gov. Snyder, Ms. Gilcreast minced no words “The governor, he has no credibility, none whatsoever to these citizens here in Flint, none.”

Marcus Muhammad, mayor of Benton Harbor, Mich., located 177 miles from Flint said it is appropriate that criminal charges be leveled against all parties that have “dirty hands” or committed crimes in Flint. 

“I do sense some political attachments to this affair given that Attorney General Schuette has aspirations to run for a position of governor,” said Mayor Muhammad.

Many have called for the governor’s resignation and Mayor Muhammad recently announced he supports a recall because of what he calls Gov. Snyder’s “gross negligence, maleficence and crimes against humanity.”

“For the governor to not be charged is criminal itself,” said Mayor Muhammad.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)