仅仅几个月前，密歇根州的州机构就站在弗林特水危机的一个责任中心。A special advisory task force had condemned the state’s use of an emergency manager to make key decisions about the city, including, in 2014, the money-saving switch of the water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River and the state Dept. of Environmental Quality’s slow response to citizen reports of smelly, discolored water. On June 22, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette started working to expand the circle via a new lawsuit in a Genesee County state court, accusing engineers Veolia N.A. and Houston-based Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam (LAN) and its parent company, Leo A Daly Co., of professional negligence.

弗林特（Flint）于2011年聘请LAN担任顾问，仅在2015年初的水危机开始后才登上维奥利亚（Veolia）。该诉讼指责该公司未能达到正常的护理标准，以检测和确定补救措施levels in the Michigan city’s drinking water. Schuette’s brief states that both companies should have known from publicly available signs and other sources about the danger of corrosion and lead in the city’s old pipes. Engineers of ordinary competence would have acted to cut short the public’s exposure to the lead, he claims. Instead, he states, LAN and Veolia both suggested adding ferric chloride to counter too-high trihalomethane levels, and Veolia suggested adding polyphosphate to cut iron corrosion, which could increase lead levels.

城市和州官员都没有采取铅腐蚀控制建议。一位州官员显然认为弗林特已经优化了腐蚀控制，但尚未完成。新利luckENR对城市记录的评论无法立即确认何时增加了用于治疗饮用水的化学物质。一位城市官员拒绝评论。

指控的核心是由Schuette的一位同事提出的类比，即工程师不能仅仅因为客户不要求它而从桥梁设计中忽略所需的支持。但是平衡弗林特的水化学是一个更复杂的小组决定。现在，该诉讼将工程师和责任保险公司纠缠在可能是一场昂贵的法律斗争中。保险公司的身份尚不清楚。

最终的道德判断将不得不等待。全国专业工程师协会副执行董事兼总法律顾问亚瑟·施瓦茨（Arthur Schwartz）说：“事实似乎是有争议的，需要解决。”

LAN and Veolia called the charges in the lawsuit false. Both firms have argued that their work was limited in scope and responsibly performed. LAN, which had been a Flint consultant prior to the water-source switch, says it had advised Flint officials of corrosion-control measures and suggested a testing period for the city’s treatment plant. Flint declined both.

维奥利亚称诉讼是错误的，无所作为的，并且是国家官员对自己失败的责任的“令人发指的”企图。