Here’s What Happened During Day 1 Of The Flint Water Crisis Settlement Hearing
(CNN) – On Monday, July 12, The Flint Water Crisis Settlement returned to court for a multi-day fairness hearing.
The settlement could provide more than $600 million total to tens of thousands of registered participants in Michigan.
It’s up to a federal judge to determine if that’s fair.
Reporter Mike Woolfolk spent the day watching the public feed and following the proceedings.
Among those testifying included Assistant State Attorney General Margaret Bettenhausen, representing Michigan.
She told the court, “The settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate and will bring closure and relief to a complex tangle of cases and claims that would otherwise have continued winding through the court system for years on end.”
While some people registered to participate in the settlement might agree, there are others who wholeheartedly disagree.
Former Mayor of Flint Karen Weaver said, “It’s the total opposite of everything she said this was, and she even went so far as to say this brings closure to the people of Flint. This doesn’t bring closure. It really felt like, to me, it ripped the scab off of a wound.”
The bulk of the testimony on July 12 centered around controversial bone scan testing for lead exposure, the equipment used for that testing, its safety, and its accessibility.
Some critics say that equipment isn’t designed for use on people, and the company that makes it admits that in court filings and declined to modify it.
“And, I don’t understand that, and every step of the way, they just showed to us how little they care about the people of Flint,” said Weaver.
In addition to this, while the machine was used anyway, some attorneys say it was not equitably available to all who may have wanted testing.
The issue here is whether those who were tested will get more money than those who were not.
The fairness hearing continues Tuesday, July 13.
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