Engineering Firms' Trial Over Flint Water Contamination Ends Without Verdict
Hung jury could set favorable precedent for similarly positioned defendants.
The latest development in the ongoing legal battles following the infamous lead contamination of drinking water in Flint, Michigan, saw a jury unable to determine whether the engineering firms involved were at fault.
“A judge declared a mistrial … after jurors said they couldn’t reach a verdict in a dispute over whether two engineering firms should bear some responsibility for Flint’s lead-contaminated water,” CBS News reported. “Veolia North America and Lockwood, Andres & Newman, known as LAN, were accused of not doing enough to get Flint to treat the highly corrosive water or to urge a return to a regional water supplier.”
In 2015, a public health emergency was declared over unsafe levels of lead in the drinking water of Flint residents. The issue was traced to outdated drinking water pipelines, which leached the contaminant after the city switched to more corrosive source water. In the years since, legal battles between victims and defendants have resulted in Flint residents receiving more than $600 million in compensation and the charges for Michigan’s top officials at the time being wiped out.
These latest proceedings focused on the effects of lead contamination on four Flint children, with prosecutors arguing that engineering firms advising the city on its water system should take a significant share of the blame for the catastrophe, and the firms’ lawyers arguing that they were unable to do more.
“During closing arguments, attorneys for the children argued that Veolia should be held 50% responsible for lead contamination and that LAN should be held 25% responsible, with public officials making up the balance,” per CBS News. “But Veolia’s lawyers noted the firm was briefly hired in the middle of the crisis, not before the spigot was turned on. LAN said an engineer repeatedly recommended that Flint test the river water for weeks to determine what treatments would be necessary.”
This ruling was likely being watched closely, with trials and settlements in other cases related to the incident still pending.
“The trial has been referred to as a ‘bellwether trial’ because its outcome could significantly affect how the claims of other plaintiffs against the companies will be resolved,” according to the Detroit Free Press.
If that’s the case, the engineering firms are likely to frame this mistrial as proof that the evidence against them cannot sway a jury to find them at fault for the most infamous drinking water contamination incident in recent history.
To read more about how outdated infrastructure can lead to contaminated drinking water, visit Water Online’s Lead and Copper Rule Solutions Center.