A task force appointed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to investigate the water-contamination crisis in Flint issued a blistering report Wednesday, laying blame squarely on state officials in what it called “a story of government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction and environmental injustice”.
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Bridge Magazine will be providing more analysis of the report soon.
In a press release responding to the report, Snyder didn’t mention those findings. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, said the committee’s next meeting, on March 29, will be held on the Flint campus of U-M, where it plans to hear testimony from Weaver, former Mayor Dayne Walling, county health department officials, current officials from the Flint Water Treatment Plant, and local citizens, including water activist LeeAnne Walters.
“Many departments have been involved in addressing the immediate crisis in whatever way they could”.
It also urged Mr. Snyder to “issue an executive order mandating guidance and training on environmental justice across all state agencies in MI, highlighting the Flint water crisis as an example of environmental injustice”. “There are nine we’re still checking on and ten that are being referred to other organizations”, Governor Snyder said.
■ The decision to switch the source of Flint’s water to the Flint River was made by a state-appointed emergency manager. It found that Flint Public Workers personnel failed to comply with the lead and copper rule, specifically by not using corrosion control treatment that should have prevented lead from leaching into the water, although it also notes that they were acting on “inaccurate and improper guidance” from the MDEQ.
“The health department, in cases of future switches of water supplies, should assume that outbreaks of (Legionnaires’ disease) cases may be related to changes in water source and communicate the potential risk to the public, rather than assuming and communicating the opposite”. Task force co-chairman Chris Kolb called the decision “unimaginable”, particularly since the river water was more corrosive than Detroit’s Lake Huron water, which had corrosion controls. At a congressional hearing in Washington last week, Snyder said he was overly reliant on “career bureaucrats” and “so-called experts” who repeatedly told him that the water was safe.
The task force, however, laid most of the blame for Flint’s lead crisis at the feat of state regulators who improperly applied federal rules to the city’s water.
The 116-page report said the state’s controversial emergency manager law contributed to the lead contamination crisis by removing governmental checks and balances.
McCarthy’s comments are part of concerted effort by the agency to prompt what she has said are hard conversations about questions and lessons learned from Flint to ensure that a crisis like it never happens again.
The task force admits that they did not have full cooperation in their investigation.
“The Governor’s appointed task force today concluded what many in Flint already know: primary responsibility for the water crisis lies with the state of MI and the Governor’s own policies”. “The people of Flint deserved better”.
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In December 2015, there was a mysterious burglary of the Flint City Hall in MI.
