Rick Snyder will tell a congressional committee Thursday that “systemic failures” at the state’s environmental protection agency led to the poisoning of Flint’s water supply.
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Under federal law, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality had the primary responsibility to enforce the federal clean water standards in the state, while the EPA is responsible for overseeing the state agency.
“They failed to inform you of a health crisis in your state?” asked Representative Brenda Lawrence of MI.
Gina McCarthy, administrator of the EPA, appeared alongside Snyder, in what is the third oversight committee hearing into the Flint crisis.
“There are two basic possiblities: Either your chief of staff told you about these returns and you did nothing or he didn’t tell you and you are an absentee governor”, Cummings said.
“Gina McCarthy said, ‘They’re making great progress, ‘” Chaffetz said.
On Thursday, Republicans on the committee pinned much of the blame on the EPA, which many party members want to eliminate because they feel the agency has too much power.
“Let me be blunt”, he said, according to prepared remarks.
“Plausible deniability only works when it’s plausible, and I’m not buying that you didn’t know about any of this until October 2015”. But he also blamed the EPA and others while defending his administration’s response.
Snyder talked about the state’s relief efforts, saying that Lansing rushed to provide filters and bottled water and testing to residents upon knowing of the problem. “I wish we had gone further, I wish we had gone farther, I wish we had yelled from the treetops”, McCarthy said.
He told McCarthy in one of several heated exchanges, “You had authority under the law (to fix problems in Flint) and you didn’t do it”.
“The EPA should have done more, they should have rushed in sooner to rescue the people of MI from Governor Snyder’s vindictive administration and his utter incompetence at every level”, Cummings said.
Democrats focused their anger at Snyder, a Republican, and other state officials, while panel Republicans spent the morning chastising McCarthy and her agency for not acting more quickly.
Flint’s problems began when the city switched its water source from Detroit’s system to the Flint River in 2014 as a cost-cutting measure.
The USA Today newspaper said its investigation showed that 2,000 water systems throughout the US, affecting six million people, have elevated lead levels above that considered safe by federal environmental standards.
At Snyder’s order, the city of about 95,000 people switched back to Lake Huron water in October, but unfiltered tap water is still not safe to drink.
Rick Snyder has been under fire since the Flint Water Crisis exploded into mainstream media.
“We were kept at arm’s length, we couldn’t do our jobs effectively”, she said.
“Off with the head of the head of the IRS”, Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly said about the Republican committee members criticisms of McCarthy.
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Representative Elijah Cummings also called on Gov. Snyder, who has three recall petition circulation against him, to resign.
