Residents of Michigan have filed a racketeering lawsuit against their own governor, Rick Snyder, and several other local and state officials over the contamination of the city's drinking water that had high levels of lead.
According to Raw Story, Flint residents allege that the government is responsible for the two-year crisis they've experienced as a result of what they call 'intentional' actions by the state officials to reduce costs and bankruptcy fears.
On Wednesday, attorneys of the plaintiffs said the state of Michigan ran Flint's day-to-day operations through an emergency manager, who prioritized the city's budget by a cost-cutting measure of switching Flint's water resource in April 2014 from Lake Huron to a local river. However, it proved to be a backlash after the state department of environmental quality didn't require the river water to be treated with corrosion control agent which eventually allowed lead to flow in the pipes and to households.
UPI reported that the lawsuit names Governor Snyder of Flint, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, as well as several companies and multiple local and state officials of switching water to cut costs.
The lawsuit said "The poisoning of the residents of Flint, Michigan, with toxic drinking water did not originate from a toxic water problem. Rather, the poisoning of the residents of Flint originated from a run of the mill city fiscal problem, which could have been safely addressed by invoking time tested, well-honed federal bankruptcy protections for restructuring the debts of municipalities. However, the State of Michigan and Governor Snyder through their Emergency Managers, did not file bankruptcy petitions for Flint. Instead, they conceived and enacted a wrongful scheme to solve Flint's fiscal problem by selling Flint residents poisoned drinking water from a new, free water source."
The plaintiffs are now seeking for compensatory damages for personal, property and business losses that could total a billion dollars, as written by Reuters. Snyder's spokesman, Ari Adler, didn't release a comment regarding the lawsuit.
In addition to the civil racketeering charge filed against the individuals, they are also alleged of gross negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and conspiracy in the 17-count lawsuit. Officials estimate that nearly 12,000 children have been exposed to the contaminated water.
