EPA Loses Third Bid to Escape Liability for Flint Water Crisis

The Environmental Protection Agency can’t shake negligence claims brought by residents of in Flint, Mich., over the water crisis there after a federal judge ruled that the government’s inaction on the city’s poor water reporting increased lead contamination risk.

This was the federal government’s third attempt to dismiss the consolidated cases, which were brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

The EPA argued that discovery showed it wasn’t the primary regulator or involved in causing the lead-contamination crisis. The Good Samaritan doctrine, which states that an agency or individual who undertakes a service can be held liable for increasing risk ...