Flint Water Crisis: Criminal Charges 'First Wave'

Updated at 2:15 p.m.

FLINT, MI –Two mid-level Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials and a Flint water administrators face prison time for manipulating water test results, tampering with evidence and lying to federal and county officials about the safety of Flint’s water in criminal charges filed Wednesday.

The charges against the three — Michael Prsby, a district engineer with the the state's Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance; Steven Busch, a former DEQ district supervisor in the division; and Flint Utilities Administrator Michael Glasgow — are a mixture of felony and misdemeanor charges.

At a Wednesday afternoon news conference, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and two members of his investigation task force, special prosecutor Todd Flood and retired FBI chief Andrew Arena — all emphasized the charges against the DEQ workers and a city of Flint employee are just beginning of an investigation expected to result in more charges.

"This is just the first wave," Flood said.

Schuette, reiterating that "these charges are only the beginning," said investigators are sorting through an estimated 2.5 million government emails related to the crisis.

“So many things went so terribly wrong, and so tragically wrong, in Flint,” he said, adding that the charges announced Wednesday are “the road back” to restoring the faith and confidence of Flint and Michigan residents in their government.

Flood said evidence is as “plain as the nose on your face” that Prysby allegedly lied to the EPA’s Miquel Del Toral when they said measures had been put in place to control the corrosive properties of the water, which allowed lead in the city’s aging pipes to leach.

The task force Schuette appointed in January to investigate whether any Michigan laws were violated also alleges that the two DEQ workers interfered with a Genesee County Health Department investigation into a Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak that has claimed 12 lives and may be linked to the city’s water supply.

Both Busch and Prysby face the following charges:

• Misconduct in office, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine;
• Conspiracy – tampering with evidence, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison and a $10,000 fine;
• Tampering with evidence, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine;
• A treatment violation under the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act for ceasing the corrosion control treatment at the Flint Water Treatment plant after the city switched its water supply to the Flint River in 2014, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and a $5,000 fine for each day of violation;
• A monitoring violation, also under the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act, also punishable by up to a year in prison and a $5,000 fine for each day of violation.

Additionally, Prysby faces a second misconduct in office charge for authorizing a permit for the Flint Water Treatment Plant to operate while knowing that it was deficient in its ability to provide clean and safe drinking water for Genesee County residents. That also is a five-year felony carrying a fine of up to $10,000.

Charges against Glasgow are:

• Tampering with evidence, a four-year felony carrying a $5,000 fine, for allegedly altering the “Lead and Copper Report and Consumer Notice of Lead Results.”
• Willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine of $1,000.

Glasgow, who is charged tampering with evidence and neglect of office, is accused of changing test results to underestimate the amount of lead contamination in the city’s drinking water supply after the city began drawing water from the Flint River in 2014.

Thousands of residents of the city of 100,000 were exposed to dangerously high levels of lead In what has been called one of the worst man-made public health catastrophes in modern times. Lead is especially dangerous for young children, and can cause irreversible brain damage, lower IQs, anti-social behavior and a host of other problems.

The switch was intended to save money for the struggling city of 100,000, which was under the control of a state emergency manager at the time, but the water’s corrosive properties caused lead in the city’s aging pipes to leach and expose thousands to dangerously high levels of lead, which can cause irreversible brain damage in children.

See Also

• Nation's Toughest Lead Water Rules Proposed in Michigan
• Drink Water AND Live in Flint, MI Gov. Rick Snyder Told
• Legionnaires Death Toll Now 12 in Flint Area: Report
• Watch: Congress Eviscerates Rick Snyder Over Flint Water Crisis
• HBO Satirist John Oliver Takes On Flint Water Crisis: Watch