EPA Request to Dismiss Flint Water Crisis Lawsuit is Denied
After a federal judge denied the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) request to dismiss claims, the major Flint water crisis lawsuit is allowed to continue.
The EPA was sued in 2017 for failing to intervene for months after learning of the potential for contamination of the Flint, Michigan water supply. The agency filed to dismiss those claims last October.
According to ABC12 News, In that filing, the EPA was adamant it was not responsible for the Flint water crisis and that any delays came from the agency determining whether the city had violated the Safe Water Drinking Act.
EPA claimed that the law prevents them from being sued for those discretionary acts.
But Judge Linda V. Parker took a different stance, writing in the decision, “Congress already balanced the ‘social, economic, [and] political policy’ considerations when it mandated EPA action in response to a State’s failure to timely reach compliance.”
The judge went on to write, “While the EPA may have had the discretion in deciding when and how to respond to citizen complaints about Flint’s water, once it decided to respond, it did not have the discretion to provide dangerously misleading or inaccurate information.”