First round of criminal charges emerge from Flint water crisis

The Michigan attorney general filed criminal charges against three government officials in connection with the contamination of the Flint water supply Wednesday — almost two years after Flint and state officials raised their glasses to celebrate the inauguration of the Flint River as the city’s new water source.

“I’ve stated this was the beginning of the road back — the road back to building and restoring trust and confidence of Flint families in their government,” Attorney General Bill Schuette said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “I’ve made it abundantly clear that our system of justice applies to everybody. It’s not rigged. No one is above the law.”

SLIDESHOW — Water crisis in Flint, Michigan >>>

The accused — one an administrator at the Flint Water Treatment Plant, the other two officials with Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality — were the first to face charges stemming from the series of disastrous decisions that culminated in the contamination of Flint’s water supply with lead, poisoning many residents, especially children. But, Schuette insisted, they wouldn’t be the last.

The three named Wednesday are:

• Michael Glasgow, Flint water treatment plant operator

When Flint’s water treatment plant resumed operations for the first time in 50 years in April 2014, Michael Glasgow was the only certified plant operator in the building.

In an email sent to Michigan DEQ officials shortly before the switch in April 2014, Glasgow warned against moving Flint’s water supply from the Detroit system to the Flint River, arguing that the city’s long-unused water plant and its staff were not prepared for such an undertaking.

"I was reluctant before, but after looking at the monitoring schedule and our current staffing, I do not anticipate giving the OK to begin sending water out anytime soon,” Glasgow wrote at the time. “If water is distributed from this plant in the next couple weeks, it will be against my direction.”

"I need time to adequately train additional staff and to update our monitoring plans before I will feel we are ready. I will reiterate this to management above me, but they seem to have their own agenda."

Despite Glasgow’s warnings, the change took place as scheduled on April 25, 2014.

While testifying about the water crisis before a state joint legislative committee this March, Glasgow claimed that he had initially intended to use corrosion-control chemicals such as phosphates to treat Flint's water but he was instructed by the DEQ’s Michael Prysby to hold off.

"I did have some concerns and misgivings at first," Glasgow said before the committee. "But unfortunately, now that I look back, I relied on engineers and the state regulators to kind of direct the decision. I looked at them as having more knowledge than myself."

Glasgow now faces up to four years in prison on a felony charge of tampering with evidence. According to the complaint submitted Wednesday, Glasgow allegedly manipulated the results of lead-in-water tests to downplay the lead levels in Flint’s drinking water. His other charge, willful neglect of duty, is a misdemeanor.

• Stephen Busch, district supervisor, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality

A former district supervisor for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s drinking water division, Busch was suspended earlier this year amid an investigation of his role in the Flint water crisis.

In an email sent to fellow DEQ officials on March 26, 2013, Busch cautioned that the river water presented a risk for increased levels of microbials and cancer-causing byproducts of disinfectants — both of which were discovered in Flint's drinking water within months of switching to the river the following year.

The felony charges against Busch include misconduct in office, for allegedly misleading EPA officials about the city’s failure to treat Flint River water with proper corrosion controls and willfully interfering with the Genesee County Health Department’s ability to investigate an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that left 12 dead. He also faces charges of conspiracy and tampering with evidence, for allegedly manipulating the results of three water test reports.

Busch was also hit with two misdemeanor charges. The first, a treatment violation under the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act, relates to the alleged failure to require that Flint River water be treated with corrosion-control chemicals. The other misdemeanor charge, a monitoring violation under the same Safe Drinking Water Act, involves allegedly distorting lead-in-water test results by instructing Flint residents to “pre-flush” the taps before collecting water samples from their homes.

Busch faces up to five years in prison for the felony misconduct charge and up to four for tampering with evidence.

• Michael Prysby, district engineer, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality

Until this week, Michael Prysby has remained in his role as a district engineer with the MDEQ’s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance. And though he faces all the same charges as Busch, the Detroit Free Press confirmed on Monday that Prysby had voluntarily left his post to work in a different division of the DEQ that deals with transportation and flood hazards.

Prysby’s name had appeared numerous times in the troves of internal emails released by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s office regarding the water situation in Flint. Prysby received Glasgow’s April 2014 email warning of the Flint water plant’s inability to safely treat the river water for public consumption.

Emails sent after the switch document Prysby’s effort to reassure the public of the Flint water’s safety as well as his somewhat callous exasperation with their complaints.

On Sept. 18, 2014, Prysby joked about the flood of calls from Flint residents concerned about the color, taste and smell of their tap water in an email to DEQ colleague Richard Benzie, writing, "Thanks Richard ... Now off to physical therapy ... perhaps mental therapy with all of these Flint calls ... lol"

In another email from Oct. 13, 2014, Prysby appears to boast about his response to a reporter’s question regarding General Motors’ decision to stop using Flint water because it was causing engine parts to rust.

“I stressed the importance of not branding Flint’s water as ‘corrosive’ from a public health standpoint simply because it does not meet a manufacturing facility’s limit for production,” Prysby wrote.

An email thread from April 3, 2015 shows Prysby’s exchange with a Flint resident concerned about how the city’s water might be affected by a sewage spill into the Flint River one day earlier.

“I will need to know the location of the spill and when it occurred,” Prysby wrote in response to the woman’s question.

“I refuse to believe you are unaware of this incident,” she wrote back, along with a link to a news article about the spill from the daily before.

Prysby was hit with the same five charges as Busch, as well as an additional count of misconduct in office for allegedly authorizing the Flint Water Treatment Plant to resume operations despite knowing that the facility was not equipped to properly treat water from the river.

The maximum penalty for conspiracy to tamper with evidence is up to four years in prison. For the felony misconduct charges the maximum sentence is five years.