“The U.S. Attorney’s Office is working with a multi-agency investigation team on the Flint water contamination matter, including the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, EPA’s Office of Inspector General and the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division”, Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Michigan’s eastern district, said yesterday in a statement.
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But he also cast blame on the EPA, saying it turned “a blind eye” on communities who aren’t following the federal Lead and Copper Rule, the nationwide standard for safe levels of lead and copper in water.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the oversight panel, said EPA should have acted on its own to warn the public about water problems in Flint.
It’s kind of a long and complicated story and it requires an understanding of how civil rights and environmental regulation and public health intersect. “Outrage doesn’t even begin to cover it”. “It was the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality telling the EPA they had this thing under control, that they were using corrosion control in Flint, when they were not”.
Karen Weaver, the mayor of Flint, Mich., announced an aggressive plan to remove all of the city’s water pipes contaminated with lead.
“Between February (2015) and the end of September 2015, there were multiple e-mail exchanges and conference calls between (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) and EPA”, new department head Keith Creagh wrote in prepared testimony.
A slew of local, state and federal officials have resigned since doctors revealed previous year that using the Flint River for the city’s drinking water supply caused elevated levels of lead in some children’s blood.
Earley was invited Monday to testify about the water crisis at Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing.
Anger ran hot and fingers of blame were pointed every which way at the first congressional hearing about the water disaster in Flint, Michigan.
“That person will be here at some point, but it’s going to take some more pulling”, said Chaffetz, who is promising to deploy U.S. Marshals to hunt down Earley and deliver a second subpoena.
“He got caught red handed poisoning the children of Flint”, Cartwright, a Democrat, said of Snyder. “Participation before this committee is not optional”. They are demanding an appearance from former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley, whose attorney refused a subpoena to testify before them.
Bolden says Earley “is in the eye of the storm”.
Creagh said he can not speak to the billing since it’s a city issue, but that he respected the question because “everyone deserves safe drinking water”. “Brought on by failures of humans, but I think as well brought on by failures of governments at all levels”.
Melissa Mays, another Flint resident who was involved in protesting the water switch early on, will be in Washington, D.C. with her three sons. State officials were in charge in April 2014 when Flint’s water supply was switched (as a cost-cutting measure) from Lake Huron (via Detroit’s water system) to the Flint River, despite the fact that river’s water was 19 times more corrosive, according to researchers from Virginia Tech. In the city of almost 100,000 some 70 miles northwest of Detroit, Earley has become a lightning rod for residents who fear health problems because of lead-laden tap water.
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For almost the past two years, water laden with lead leached from aging delivery pipes has been flowing into the homes and businesses located in Flint. GOP Governor Rick Snyder and his administration, including Earley, are being accused of ignoring residents’ calls for help and scientific data both before the switch and after.
