He said government at all levels should have done more.
Advertisement
Hollins asked the department to investigate and if the concerns were credible it was to tell Snyder, the spokesman said in an email. Because that water was not treated with corrosion control, the more corrosive river water leached lead from old pipes into residents’ taps.
Edwards testified that the EPA was “aiding and abetting” the Department of Environmental Quality’s “cover-up” of the problem.
Markey (D-Mass.), top Democrat on the Superfund, Waste Management and Regulatory Oversight Subcommittee, today queried the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its efforts to determine where there may be other communities at risk of drinking water contamination similar to what Flint, Michigan has experienced. There’s blame to go around. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, worked feverishly to save a sweeping bipartisan energy bill that Democrats have threatened to derail if $600 million in additional federal aid to MI to help clean up the contaminated water is not included in the measure. One example of their alleged knowledge of the water’s toxicity was that officials received bottled water when they told Flint residents that the brown, murky water was safe to consume.
It took a researchers from Virginia Tech to compile a body of evidence to force officials to acknowledge the large-scale lead poisoning in the city. As the trouble in the city garnered national attention, Flint residents and supporters have demanded accountability, starting with the resignation of Snyder and others who might have been involved.
They’re betting by engaging in such a public fight over Flint, they can put Republicans in an awkward position – and maybe score some political points along the way.
The energy bill is the first in nine years. “What I read tells me they did not get much help for various reasons”.
“We are serious, and if they want a bill we want to help the people of Flint”, said Sen. The river water wound up leaching lead from the city’s pipes, resulting in elevated lead in Flint kids’ blood.
In November, the EPA announced it was auditing how MI enforces drinking water rules and said it would identify how to strengthen state oversight. Twenty-one states do not reveal their sampling instructions. The measure requires the state of MI to match the federal spending. “There is no justifiable reason for testing with loopholes except to hide lead”. “Because he’s hiding, that’s why”, Cartwight added, answering his own question.
The more aggressive messaging from the Michigan GOP comes as Snyder’s approval ratings after Flint have plummeted – though just 29 percent say he should resign from office.
But emails obtained by PM through public records requests show that a principal adviser to Snyder was aware of an uptick in the disease in Genesee County as early as March 2015, and a county health official said the increase was nearly certainly linked to the area switching its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River.
Advertisement
Earley refused to testify at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, leading the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, to call on USA marshals to “hunt him down and serve him that subpoena”.
