Legal
Veolia Agrees to $25M Settlement in Flint Water Crisis Case
A settlement agreement between Veolia North America and residents of Flint, Mich., is now awaiting approval by a federal judge.
Photo by Lance Cheung/U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
Engineering firm Veolia North America agreed to a $25-million settlement to resolve a federal class action case related to its work for the city of Flint, Mich., during the city’s lead-in-water crisis, the company and attorneys for the plaintiffs announced Feb. 1. Veolia is the second engineering firm that worked for the city to settle with city residents, and the deal came ahead of a class-action trial scheduled to start later this month.
The money adds to the $626 million for residents impacted by the crisis from an earlier settlement with Michigan and others. And this new agreement also includes additional $1,500 payments for minors, totaling up to $1.5 million. The settlement agreement still requires a judge’s OK, but the trial has been suspended pending approval, according to Boston-based Veolia.
Ted Leopold, a court-appointed attorney representing Flint residents in the class action, said in a statement that the settlement “is an important step forward to bringing a close to the horrible years of nightmares for the Flint community.”
Flint’s drinking water crisis started in 2014 after the city switched its water supply source to the Flint River. The city’s water treatment plant was not prepared for treating corrosive river water, and lead from pipes leached into the water.
Some residents sued Veolia and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam (LAN), which had also worked for the city, accusing them of negligence and breach of care.
Veolia has argued that it held no responsibility for the crisis. The city hired the firm as a consultant after the crisis began, and the company has maintained that it provided good recommendations to the city, but officials largely ignored them. A Veolia spokesperson said in a statement that the company continues to stand by its work in Flint.
“As the facts of the 2022 trial clearly demonstrate, the Flint water crisis was caused by government officials,” the spokesperson said. “The people of Flint and all who were affected deserve justice. It is a disgrace that nearly a decade since the crisis was set in motion, still no person who was actually responsible has been held accountable.”
In 2022, Veolia and LAN defended their work during a bellwether trial for a separate federal case brought on behalf of some minors impacted by the crisis. Jurors said they could not reach a unanimous verdict and the judge declared a mistrial.
LAN settled the claims against it last year. Veolia still faces a retrial in the case brought by families of some of the impacted children, who were not part of the class settlement. Veolia said in a statement that it would continue to fight the allegations brought in that case.
“We have been extremely clear since the beginning of the Flint litigation: [Veolia] did nothing wrong in Flint,” the company spokesperson said.
An attorney representing the plaintiffs in that case did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Leopold said the class action attorneys plan to continue with a case against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, calling it “the final bad actor in this long and difficult saga.”
