This Jan. 21, 2016 photo shows the water tower at the Flint, Mich., water plant.
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The agency also released a letter from EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to Snyder outlining terms of the order. “Well, we’re going to have to use about five bottles of water to boil some noodles for a spaghetti dinner”, she explained from her home in Flint, which continues to suffer from a 2013 cost-saving decision to switch its water supply from Detroit’s system to its own new one, which will draw water from Lake Huron but drew water from the Flint River while the new system is being completed.
But Keith Creagh said the state has “legal and factual concerns” with an EPA order a day earlier taking state and city officials to task for their efforts so far and requiring them to take specific actions.
But it’s impossible to say how long it will take before the water is safe enough to drink without the use of filters, which the state has been distributing to residents along with bottled water.
State water regulators failed to ensure corrosive water from the Flint River was treated to prevent leaching from lead pipes. Now families fear for their health and especially for the future of their children, who can develop learning disabilities and behavior problems from lead exposure.
The information comes from The Guardian, which says it received documents showing that city water tests are “systematically distorting” the amount of lead present.
“Michiganders need to be able to depend on state government to do what’s best for them and in the case of the DEQ that means ensuring their drinking water is safe”, Gov. Rick Snyder said.
The Flint Water Advisory Task Force said its recommendations are more detailed and comprehensive than what the EPA ordered. Snyder spokesman Dave Murray didn’t reveal how the PR team will be paid.
The panel recommendations included working with the EPA staff on a comprehensive lead-sampling program and seeking help from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in assessing an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease and its cause.
“It is important to create an environment that is welcoming and supportive of immigrants before a crisis happens so that all residents, including immigrants, can receive the full benefit of public services funded by their tax dollar contributions”.
“Government can’t do it by itself because people won’t trust government”, said Sikkema, a former Republican state Senate majority leader.
The unnamed DEQ employees were suspended Friday pending investigations. The environmental agency’s director and communications director resigned last month.
The EPA said Susan Hedman, head of the agency’s regional office in Chicago whose jurisdiction includes MI, was stepping down February 1 so the EPA could focus “solely on the restoration of Flint’s drinking water”.
While much of the blame has been directed at Snyder and state officials, particularly the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, some have faulted the EPA’s Region 5 office for not acting more forcefully.
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The governor says some agency actions “lacked common sense, and that resulted in this awful tragedy in Flint”.
