A federal judge on Wednesday approved a $626 million settlement—one of the largest settlements in Michigan’s history—in lawsuits filed by tens of thousands residents of Flint, Michigan, and others who were exposed to the city’s lead-contaminated tap water.
Most of the money in the settlement, $600 million, is coming from the state of Michigan. State and city officials in Michigan were accused of having overlooked the risks of switching the Flint’s water source to the Flint River in April 2014 without properly treating the water, and then failed to quickly address the contamination.
