Veolia North America, an engineering firm, has agreed to pay $53 million for its alleged role in the ongoing lead-tainted water crisis plaguing Flint, MI, since April 2014.

In exchange for the settlement, Michigan has agreed to dismiss its civil lawsuit against the Boston, MA-based company, which will pay 26,000 individual Flint plaintiffs suing them in separate litigation, according to The Detroit News.

“After years of drawn-out legal battles, this settlement finally closes a chapter for Flint residents,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said on Feb. 21, 2025. “While no amount of money can fully repair the damage caused to the Flint community, these funds will provide additional resources to those directly impacted, especially Flint children, by this preventable crisis.”

Flint’s water crisis started when the city, under state-controlled emergency management, switched its drinking water source from Detroit’s Lake Huron to the Flint River while construction was underway on the Karegnondi pipeline.

The Flint water treatment plant failed to add proper corrosion control chemicals to the Flint River water, causing toxic lead to leach from water service lines into the drinking water of thousands of homes, The Detroit News reported.

The leaching continued until the administration of then-Republican Governor Rick Snyder switched Flint back to Detroit’s water system in October 2015 after children were found with elevated lead levels in their bloodstream.

In subsequent years, the attorney general’s office and other private attorneys representing both class and individual plaintiffs sued Veolia, alleging that the company failed to identify issues with Flint’s corrosion control treatments at the water treatment plant.

However, Veolia has defended its work in Flint and blamed government officials for the crisis. In a February 2024 news release, the company said it conducted a one-week assessment 10 months after the switch to the Flint River and recommended the city implement corrosion control measures to prevent lead leaching from homeowners’ service lines.

The news release came after the company settled a separate class action lawsuit from Flint residents for $25 million.

“We have been extremely clear since the beginning of the Flint litigation: VNA did nothing wrong in Flint. We stand by the work our people did in Flint,” Veolia said. “The people of Flint and all who were affected deserve justice. It is a disgrace that nearly a decade since the crisis was set in motion; still no person who was actually responsible has been held accountable.”

Several celebrities and organizations have stepped in to help Flint during its ongoing crisis, with one of the most notable being Mari Copeny, better known as “Little Miss Flint.”

Copeny’s efforts started when, at age 8, she wrote a letter to former President Obama requesting a Flint visit due to the water crisis. Obama obliged and even approved a budget of $100 million to aid Flint, AFROTECH™ noted.

Since then, 16-year-old Copeny, who continues her daily efforts to improve her community, has raised over $700,000 for her Flint Kids projects and has distributed over a million water bottles, according to her website.

She has also partnered with Hydroviv to create her own water filter, raising over $700,000 to produce and distribute the filters nationwide to communities facing toxic drinking water.

The young activist recently shared her opinion about Veolia’s most recent settlement to her city.

“Almost 11 years later, and they stay playing in our faces,” she tweeted on Feb. 22, 2025. “Veolia brings in BILLIONS annually, but this little settlement is a joke. And still, the only people who have received any money from this “settlement” are the lawyers to the tune of $200M.”