[ad_1]
Demonstrators demand action in the Flint, Mich., water crisis from the Republican presidential candidates March 3, 2016, before the GOP presidential debate in Detroit.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is expected to announce criminal charges Wednesday afternoon against three people involved in the Flint, Mich., water crisis.
According to the Associated Press, two state regulators and a Flint employee, all allegedly connected to wrongdoing in the city’s lead-tainted-water crisis, are expected to face misdemeanor and felony charges, including “violating Michigan’s drinking-water law, official misconduct, destruction of utility property and evidence tampering.”
AP notes that these are the first charges, but may not be the last in an investigation that is expected to broaden.
Flint has been under a state of emergency for the past four months in response to high levels of lead in Flint’s drinking water since the city in 2014 redirected its water supply from Detroit Water’s Lake Huron source, a safe and tested drinking source, to the Flint River. Residents immediately began complaining that faucet water was brown and unsafe to drink and smelled bad.
Scientists were finally called to test the water in October and confirmed what many residents suspected, that the water was unsafe to drink. The city switched the water supply back to the Detroit Water system in mid-October, “but state officials said this week, the city’s drinking water is still not considered safe,” the Detroit News reports.
In January, Schuette opened an investigation and appointed a special counsel to lead the probe because his office also is defending Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and others in lawsuits filed over the water crisis, AP reports.
Read more at ABC News and the Detroit News.
Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
[ad_2]
