Exec Charged Over 2022 Oil Spill Into Michigan’s Flint River

Rajinder Singh Minhas, president of Flint-based Lockhart Chemical, has been charged in connection with the 2022 unauthorized discharge of oil that polluted Michigan’s Flint River, leaving a miles-long oily sheen.

The facility’s maintenance and upgrades were allegedly mismanaged and neglected under Minhas’s leadership as director and treasurer of Lockhart Chemical. I Photo: Lockhart Chemical Company

The Associated Press (AP) reported the charges on December 24, 2024.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that Minhas faces multiple charges, including altering public records, causing substantial public endangerment, and making false statements about air pollution control.

The incident involved approximately 15,000 gallons of an oil-chemical mixture that entered the Flint River on June 15, 2022, via a storm sewer.

The facility’s maintenance and upgrades were allegedly mismanaged and neglected under Minhas’s leadership as director and treasurer of Lockhart Chemical, which produces coatings, hydraulic fluids, and lubricants.

“We will hold accountable those whose actions endanger public health and our natural resources,” Nessel stated in a press release.