A federal court has dismissed all claims against state defendants in three lawsuits over lead in the city of Benton Harbor’s water.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Thursday her department defended Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other state officials in the cases.
The United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan ruled in their favor, which Nessel says demonstrates the city’s “lead contamination was neither caused nor exacerbated by state actors.” She adds once the state was aware of the issue, discovered in 2018, “state officials immediately acted to their best abilities to remediate the situation.”
The three lawsuits were Daretha Braziel vs Whitmer, Iesah Mitchell vs City of Benton Harbor, and Dwayne Grant vs EPA.
