By Sara Jerome,

@sarmje

Around 1,700 residents of Flint, MI, are suing the federal government for what they see as mismanagement of the lead contamination crisis in the city.

The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status as they proceed.

“The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Michigan, asserted that the U.S. EPA failed to warn them of the dangers of the toxic water or take steps to ensure that state and local authorities were addressing the crisis. The plaintiffs seek $722 million in damages,” Reuters reported.

The 30-page lawsuit said, per Reuters: “This case involves a major failure on all levels of government to protect the health and safety of the public. Local, state and federal agencies and employees, working individually and at times in concert with each other, mismanaged this environmental catastrophe.”

The lawsuit argues that “despite notice of the danger as early as October 2014, the EPA failed to take the mandatory steps to determine that Michigan and Flint authorities were not taking appropriate action to protect the public from toxic water,” according to Michigan Radio.

A separate class-action lawsuit over the Flint crisis was dismissed last week.

“The lawsuit was filed in 2015 against Gov. Rick Snyder, the city of Flint and other state and city officials involved in making the decision to use water from the corrosive Flint River, which caused high lead levels in the water municipal water system,” The Detroit News reported.

U.S. District Judge John Corbett O’Meara dismissed the case, saying that allowing “claims to proceed would circumvent the Safe Drinking Water Act,” according to The Detroit News.

Flint’s water crisis has sparked “many lawsuits filed against local, state and federal officials, as well as private contractors,” according to Michigan Radio.

For instance, last year, cases of Legionnaires’ disease in the city “prompted a $100 million class-action lawsuit against McLaren Flint hospital, where many of Legionnaires’ cases were reported, and several state employees,” The Detroit News reported.

To read more about the Flint lead crisis visit Water Online’s Drinking Water Contaminant Removal Solutions Center.