FLINT, Mich. — Michigan’s attorney general filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against two water-engineering companies, saying their negligence caused and exacerbated Flint’s lead-tainted water crisis and demanding what could total hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
The companies, Veolia, a French multinational corporation with U.S. offices, and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam of Houston were sued in Genesee County Circuit Court. The firms already are facing suits from Flint residents over the disaster, in which improperly treated water from the Flint River scraped toxic lead from pipes into tap water.
Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam — whose Flint office in 2013 and 2014 helped the city of nearly 100,000 switch to the Flint River as its primary water supply after decades of buying treated water from Detroit — was accused of professional negligence and public nuisance.
Veolia faces the same allegations along with a fraud count. It was hired in 2015 after Flint began encountering numerous water problems. The suit said it and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam failed to detect the lack of a corrosion control chemical and instead recommended the addition of a chloride that made the problem worse.
“In Flint, Veolia and [Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam] were hired to do a job and failed miserably,” Attorney General Bill Schuette said at a news conference in Flint. “They basically botched it, didn’t stop the water in Flint from being poisoned. They made it worse.”
In a statement, Veolia North America said it “will vigorously defend itself against these unwarranted allegations of wrongdoing.” It noted that a task force appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder largely blamed the state for the emergency and did not mention the company or assign it any blame.
“The Attorney General has not talked to Veolia about its involvement in Flint, interviewed the company’s technical experts or asked any questions about our one-time, onemonth contract with Flint,” Veolia said in a statement.