The ACLU files suit in Federal court and asks them to step in and oversee the Flint Water Crisis.
FLINT – A coalition of local citizens and national groups filed suit today to ask a federal court to step in and secure access to safe drinking water for the people of Flint, Michigan.
Alleging violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, the complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan by the ACLU of Michigan, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Concerned Pastors for Social Action and Flint resident Melissa Mays.
The Federal courts needs to step in quickly and order Federal oversight and management of this unprecedented disaster brought to the residents of Flint MI by Governor Snyder and his self-appointed and unelected City Manager!
Thanks to Snyder and his self-appointed City Manager the citizens of Flint MI have been getting poisoned with water containing lead since around April 2014. There have been quite a number of diaries on this crisis so I won’t go into the details of what lead to this lawsuit.
Further the ACLU is asking the Federal court to order city and state officials to replace all lead pipes throughout the city at no cost to residents.
The lawsuit asks a federal court to compel the city and state officials to follow federal requirements for testing and treating water to control for lead and to order the prompt replacement of all lead water pipes at no cost to Flint residents. The groups and Ms. Mays also seek appropriate relief to remedy the health and medical harms to Flint residents from the lead contamination. The lawsuit is not seeking monetary damages.
The full text of the ACLU suit can be found here.
Getting the lead pipes replaced and the water back to safe standards required by Federal law is the most important goal short term. In parallel Governor Snyder and his self-appointed City Manager must face criminal charges in addition to massive Civil lawsuits. They and anyone else involved in this disaster should lose every penny to their names and spend many years in prison!