DIRTY WATER

Flint Water Crisis Trial Ends in Deadlock

After hearing months of evidence, the jury couldn’t decide which engineering firm should be held partly responsible for the crisis.

A five-month trial examining whether two engineering companies were partly responsible for Flint’s lead-contaminated water crisis has ended in a mistrial. After 25 days of deliberation period, the jury determined they couldn’t reach a verdict. Two outside engineering firms at the heart of the trial, Veolia North America and Lockwood Andrews & Newman (LAN), had faced criticism for their role in the environmental and public health catastrophe. In April 2014, officials in the Michigan city chose to cut costs and switch the city’s water supply to the Flint River without additional water treatment, thereby bringing the lead-poisoned water into residents’ homes. The two firms are accused of not doing enough to get Flint to treat the water or to encourage the city to return to a regional water supplier. Attorneys for the victims had argued that Veolia should be held 50 percent responsible and that LAN should be held 25 percent responsible, according to the Associated Press.