State government is primarily responsible for the Flint water crisis, and state officials – including the governor – should stop implying that federal and Flint city officials are equally to blame.
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The drinking water in Flint became tainted in 2014 when the city, under control of a governor-appointed emergency manager, switched its water supply from Lake Huron water treated in Detroit to water from the Flint River. Corrosive water in the river caused lead to leach out of the city’s pipeline infrastructure.
Task force co-chair Chris Kolb calls the Flint water crisis a “catastrophic failure by government for the people of Flint”.
This past weekend Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder answered to a panel of congressional representatives regarding the Flint Water Crisis.
Meanwhile, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver gave an update on her “Fast Start” program under which fault water lines will be replaced with new ones to avoid similar contamination issues in the future. He says a stricter state standard will benefit Flint and every community in MI. Chaffetz said considering that he brought the problem to light months before the EPA finally enacted an emergency order in Flint in January of this year, Del Toral should have been given a pay raise. Under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules that Snyder has called “dumb and unsafe”, a water system must take steps to control corrosion if lead concentrations exceed 15 parts per billion in more than 10 per cent of customer taps sampled. He appointed emergency managers who made key decisions that led to and prolonged the crisis.
We know bureaucrats inside the MDEQ and MDHHS slow-walked responses to complaints of foul, brown water after Flint switched its source in mid-2013; we know the federal Environmental Protection Agency raised concerns behind the scenes and then declined to publicly air them; we know members of the governor’s inner circle raised questions about Flint water, traces of lead in it and a connection to Legionnaires’ outbreak.
In the summer of 2013, former Flint emergency manager Ed Kurtz approved a contract with an engineering firm to upgrade the Flint Water Treatment plant, and that approval is seen as the first official record indicating a decision to switch Flint’s drinking water source to the Flint River. He blamed career bureaucrats in the federal government and in his state but also repeatedly apologized for his role in the crisis.
The task force was created in October and had been expected to reveal its findings in February.
In addition to maintaining a high quality water system, the city values clear communication with consumers.
The report also faulted Snyder’s office for relying on incorrect information from the DEQ and other agencies even as evidence grew that they were wrong, waiting until last October to support returning Flint to the Detroit water system – a move that a member of the governor’s executive staff had recommended a year earlier.
The group said the state’s Department of Health and Human Services failed to quickly recognize the crisis and protect public health.
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“It was somebody that had knowledge of those documents that really wanted to keep them out of the right hands”, Johnson said, “out of the hands of someone who was going to tell the real story of what’s going on with Flint water”.
