Things have progressively gotten worse concerning the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. According to a report from Reuters, on Monday more than 1,700 area residents and property owners filed lawsuits against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, aka the EPA, for their mismanagement of the water crisis.
The lawsuit claims that the EPA failed to warn citizens of the dangers of the toxic water in addition to their failure of ensuring that state and local authorities were addressing the crisis. The $722.4 million the residents seek are rooted in health and property damages.
You can read an excerpt of the report below.
State officials said last week that lead levels in Flint's drinking water had fallen below federal limits although they cautioned residents to keep using filtered water as the city's old lead pipes are replaced. The water crisis erupted when tests in 2015 found high amounts of lead in blood samples taken from children in Flint, a predominantly black city of about 100,000. Flint was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched its water source to the Flint River from Lake Huron in April 2014. The more corrosive river water caused lead to leach from pipes and into the drinking water. Lead poisoning stunts children's cognitive development, and no level of exposure is considered safe.