Michigan to pay $600M to Flint water crisis victims

The U.S. state of Michigan said onThursday that it had reached a preliminary settlement to pay$600 million US to victims of the Flint water crisis, potentiallyclosing a chapter on one of thatcountry's worst public healthcrises in recent memory.

If approved, the deal would provide the bulk of the funds tochildren impacted by poisoning of the water in the city of Flint.

It would rank as the largest settlement in the state's history,attorney general Dana Nessel said in a statement.

The settlement is the culmination of 18 months of talks overhow to compensate residents who were sickened by tap water afterstate officials switched the city's water supply six years ago,sparking a crisis that garnered national attention.

Michigan Gov.Gretchen Whitmer, who inherited the crisisupon taking office in 2019, acknowledged that the agreementwould not solve all of the city's problems and vowed to keepallocating resources to ensure Flint's water was safe.

"What happened in Flint should never have happened," Whitmersaid in recorded remarks. "The uncertainty and troubles that thepeople of Flint have endured is unconscionable. It is time forthe state to do what it can."

Lawsuits against the state are being overseen by U.S. District Judge Judith Levy, who would have to approve the settlement.

In January, the Supreme Court let Flint residents pursue acivil rights lawsuit that accused the city and governmentofficials of knowingly allowing the water supply to becomecontaminated with lead.

Flint switched its water source from the city of Detroit to the Flint River to save money in 2014, while under control of a state-appointed emergency manager. State environmental regulators advised Flint, located about about 112 kilometresnorth of Detroit, not to apply corrosion controls to the water, which was contaminated by lead from aging pipes.

Residents of the city with a population of nearly 100,000 people quickly began complaining that the water was discoloured and had a bad taste and smell. They blamed it for rashes, hair loss and other health concerns, but local and state officials insisted it was safe.

Researchers with Virginia Tech University reported in summer 2015 that samples of Flint water had abnormally high lead levels. Shortly afterward, a group of doctors announced that local children had high levels of lead in their blood and urged Flint to stop using water from the river.

More than 25,000 people were harmed through exposure tocontaminants in Flint, including more than 5,000 childrenyounger than 12, court records showed as of January.

Then-governorRick Snyder eventually acknowledged the problem, accepted the resignation of his environmental chief and pledged to aid the city, which resumed using Detroit water.

Residents used bottled water for drinking and household needs for more than a year. Researchers said in late 2016 that lead was no longer detectable in many homes.

The settlement stipulates that 79.5 per centof the funds will beallocated to children exposed to the water, the majority of whom were under sixat the time of the crisis. Some 18 per centwill go toadults and to settle property damage.

LeeAnne Walters, a 42-year-old resident of Flint, said shewas happy the agreement is focused on children. She said hertwin boys, now nine, have been seeing a speech therapist after apediatrician diagnosed them with an impediment caused by lead inthe water.

"Even today, we still suffer with the rashes that started in2014, all of us," she told Reuters. "Whatever was in that water
then is still affecting us now."

If the settlement gains approval, it will resolve more thana hundred state and federal cases, Nessel said.

However, Nessel said that lawsuits filed by her predecessoragainst a subsidiary of French water company Veolia andHouston-based engineering services firm Lockwood, Andrews &Newnam (LAN) would continue unless they joined the settlement in45 days.

A spokespersonfor Veolia North America said she did notimmediately have a comment.

A lawyer for LAN, one of the companies involved in carryingout the switch of the city's water supply from Lake Huron to theFlint River in April 2014, said the company had "noresponsibility for providing water treatment and plant operation services" at the time of switch and the state was to blame.

"We look forward to our day in court so that all of thefacts surrounding LAN's lack of involvement in this tragedy willbe made clear," Wayne Mason said in an emailed statement.