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AG expected to announce charges in Flint water investigation, sources say

Posted at 6:02 PM, Apr 19, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-19 23:15:26-04

LANSING, Mich. (AP/WXMI) — Michigan’s attorney general is expected to make a “significant announcement” regarding his investigation into the Flint water crisis Wednesday.

According to the attorney generals’s office, Bill Schuette will join Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton and the Flint Water Investigative Team to make the announcement based on findings of their investigation.

The charges — the first levied in a probe expected to continue — will be filed against a pair of state Department of Environmental Quality officials and a local water treatment plant supervisor, two officials told The Associated Press late Tuesday. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

One official says the charges include violating Michigan’s drinking water law, official misconduct, destruction of utility property and evidence tampering.

The news conference is scheduled for 1 p.m.

Schuette, a Republican, announced Jan. 15 he would investigate what, if any, Michigan laws had been violated in the process that left Flint’s drinking water contaminated with lead.

The financially struggling city switched from Detroit’s municipal water system and began drawing from the Flint River in 2014 to save money. The water wasn’t properly treated to prevent lead from pipes from leaching into the supply.