EPA Sued for Negligence
August 27, 2020
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can be sued for negligence in the Flint water crisis, U.S. District Judge Judith Levy said Wednesday in an 86-page opinion.
Citing the failure of EPA regulators to timely act as good Samaritans and blow the whistle on lead in the water supply. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must face a lawsuit filed by Flint residents.
The EPA argued it was immune from the claims of negligence and willful misrepresentation raised by residents.
However, the OIG issued a finding in October 2016 that EPA’s Region 5 office had “the authority and sufficient information to issue … an emergency order as early as June 2015,” but waited until seven months later to do so.
“The EPA knew as early as June 2015 that Flint residents were in danger of drinking and being exposed to lead contaminated water,” Levy said. The federal government concealed, ignored, or downplayed the risks they faced during the city’s water crisis.
“The Court finds that the United States has not carried its burden to show that the EPA’s actions and inactions in Flint … are shielded by the discretionary function exception. Further, the EPA’s failure to warn Flint citizens about the lead and dangerous bacteria that was in their water for months, and its allegedly negligent responses to citizen complaints, are not the kinds of decisions that the discretionary function exception was designed to shield.”
For more information go to the Water/Flint Water Crisis page.