Veolia Issues Statement On Allegations About Flint

(RTTNews) - Veolia said Friday that the lawsuit filed by the Michigan Attorney General on Thursday is outrageous. The allegations against the company are false, inaccurate, and unwarranted. The lawsuit represents the latest attempt to deflect responsibility by government officials and representatives who caused and are responsible for this situation.

On Thursday, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced that his office has filed a civil lawsuit in Genesee County Circuit Court. The suit would hold multinational water engineering services corporation Veolia accountable for professional negligence and fraud, which caused Flint's lead poisoning problem to continue and worsen, and created an ongoing public nuisance.

The civil suit also included the water engineering services corporation known as Lockwood, Andrews & Newman or LAN, also for professional negligence that caused Flint's lead poisoning crisis to continue and worsen, contributing to an ongoing public nuisance.

The suit seeks to recover monetary damages, likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars, for harms caused by Veolia and LAN in Flint. Because lead is dangerous to human health even at the lowest levels, Michigan citizens who have ingested poisoned water could face a range of immediate and long-term challenges in the areas of health care, special education needs, social services and replacement of water infrastructure. The suit seeks to recover these damages from Veolia and LAN.

The company today noted that the Attorney General filed this lawsuit and made these false claims after the Governor's Task Force, acting for the State of Michigan, conducted a thorough investigation including dozens of interviews and exonerated Veolia from any involvement in the Flint water crisis. The Governor's Task Force placed blame precisely where it belongs, with the government officials who made all of the decisions and directed all of the actions that resulted in the crisis.

"The facts are important, and we are alarmed and outraged that the State of Michigan is abusing them for the sake of political expedience. We were hired for a limited, one-month, one-time study - 160 hours in total - and asked to only assist with an analysis of disinfection byproducts, and taste and odor issues in Flint. Veolia was given rigid parameters around what we were and were not allowed to do and we followed those directions. We made a series of recommendations and they were ignored," Veolia said.

In fact, when Veolia raised potential lead and copper issues, city officials and representatives told us to exclude it from scope of work because the city and the EPA were just beginning to conduct lead and copper testing.

The lawsuit is baseless, entirely unfounded, and appears to be intended to distract from the troubling and disturbing realities that have emerged as a result of this tragedy. Veolia remains committed to safe, high-quality drinking water and environmental protection and is proud to serve as the world's leading private water company.