Facts from the courtroom
March 11, 2022

The facts on VNA’s recommendations to the city of Flint

All of VNA’s recommendations were ignored by the politicians and bureaucrats in charge of the City’s water supply

On March 9th, LAN engineer Warren Green testified that VNA made a series of recommendations to Flint officials on how to improve the City’s water supply. When Green asked if LAN should implement two of VNA’s recommendations, the City said they were looking into them. Despite asking multiple times, Green never received the go-ahead from Flint officials.

THE FACTS ON VNA’S RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE CITY OF FLINT 

  • The City of Flint hired VNA 10 months after the crisis to conduct a one-week review of the operations of the Flint Water Treatment Plant and provide some advice to the City on how to help solve the significant problems caused by a cancer-causing chemical in the water called Trihalomethane (TTHM).
  • Even though they were hamstrung with bad information, VNA gave good advice to the City of Flint. Their engineers analyzed the data and made a series of important recommendations on how to improve the water quality.
  • These recommendations included operational changes, differences in water treatment regimens and chemical dosing, increased maintenance and increased training.
  • In their final report to the City, VNA urged Flint officials to work with the City’s engineer and the MDEQ to evaluate the need for corrosion control and the use of phosphate for that purpose. The City of Flint never implemented that suggestion. 
  • With the exception of purchasing a filter, the City of Flint ignored all of VNA’s other proposals and suggestions as to how to improve the quality of the water. 
  • After VNA’s work in Flint was complete, VNA followed up to see if the City wanted additional help implementing these recommendations. VNA was told that the City itself was going to implement VNA’s corrosion control recommendations, but the City never did.
  • VNA had every reason to think Flint officials would do their job and take appropriate action, but instead their recommendations were ignored, disregarded and dismissed.