Lawyers Meet to Resolve Flint Documents Stalemate

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s Flint water crisis legal team with meet with Gov. Rick Snyder’s attorneys Thursday in an attempt to end a stalemate over the release of documents.

Earlier this week, Schuette told reporters that Snyder’s private attorneys haven’t supplied all the documents that have been requested by Royal Oak attorney Todd Flood, the special investigator who is leading a wide-ranging civil and criminal investigation into the state’s handling of the public health catastrophe.

Flint’s drinking water supply became contaminated with lead when the city began drawing water from the Flint River in 2014 while under the control of a state-appointed emergency management. The governor’s office didn’t acknowledge the contamination until last fall and waited until January to declare a state of emergency in Flint.

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“A request for information was made, they weren’t forthcoming and it had nothing to do with the attorneys at the AG’s office, it was the governor’s personal attorneys who weren’t providing information,” Schuette said.

“I think it will be worked out,” Schuette told reporters. “And if it’s not worked out, it will be solved. ... If we don’t get the documents that we require, then we’ll solve the problem otherwise, other ways.”

So far, the special investigation has resulted in criminal charges against two former Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials and a Flint water administrators.

Last week, Schuette’s office filed a civil lawsuit against two private companies his office alleges not only failed to protect Flint residents from the contaminated water, but also “made a bad situation worse.”

The lawsuit filed in Genesee County Circuit Court names Veolia North America and Lockwood Andrews & Newnam (LAN), as well as LAN’s Nebraska-based parent company, Leo A. Daly Co.

They “botched the job,” Schuette said.

Both Veolia, a water company, and LAN, an engineering firm, responded that the scope of their work was limited and the government ignored some of their recommendations, the Free Press reported.