Statement from Mayor Weaver on State Attorney General’s Announcement of Civil Lawsuit Filed Against Companies for Suspected Role in Flint Water Crisis

June 22, 2016 (FLINT) “I met with Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette this afternoon here at City Hall. I thank him and his team for the work they are doing to hold all those accountable who had a role in the man-made water disaster we are still dealing with here in the City of Flint. It’s disturbing to hear that companies hired to ensure the safety of the City’s water supply may not have done what they were paid to do and that those alleged actions may have been a factor in causing lead to enter into Flint’s water supply.

It’s interesting that when you look at Veolia, I can recall the public crying out and raising questions about how state-appointed people making decisions for the City of Flint chose to bring them in and pay them thousands of dollars to tell residents the water was OK, when their own eyes were telling them it wasn’t. As for LAN, as of this April, the City has paid the company more than $3.5 million for services and for them to be accused of actions that may have helped poison the City’s water supply with lead is unbelievable. The City does have a current contract with LAN, and we will be taking a serious look at it and we will wait anxiously to see what is decided in a court of law on whether these companies are found to be responsible for these actions including negligence and fraud. One thing we know now is that the citizens of Flint are suffering from this water catastrophe and there is plenty of blame to go around. Whoever had a role in creating this man-made disaster must be held responsible.

I applaud Attorney General Bill Schuette and his team’s strategy of filing a civil lawsuit in effort to obtain the funds that are desperately needed now and will continued to be required in the future as the citizens and the City of Flint work to recover from this disaster. We did not deserve what happened here, but we absolutely deserve the funding necessary to provide the resources, like healthcare, nutrition and new infrastructure we need to repair and recover from the damage that has been done.”