Two Michigan Department of Environmental Quality workers were suspended Friday for actions they took related to water testing in Flint, Gov. Rick Snyder said. However, he challenges the legality of the federal government’s demands. Reports have pointed to errors at the city, state and federal level, but the bulk of the blame has been put on the DEQ, a state agency whose director resigned at the end of a year ago over Flint’s water issues.
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Flint’s water crisis is drowning the city in problems and concerns about health and finances are at the top of resident’s minds. The federal government denied a request for additional aid through a disaster declaration, saying the program is designed for natural disasters and therefore not appropriate for the city’s drinking water crisis.
Both employees were suspended pending an investigation, in accordance with civil service rules.
Gov. Rick Snyder (R) waited much too long to respond to the escalating catastrophe.
“As you and I discussed, some progress has been made in addressing these recommendations, but there continues to be inadequate transparency and accountability with regard to provision of test results and actions taken, and those are critical for the people of Flint”, McCarthy wrote Snyder.
The EPA’s order to state and city officials came the same day that the agency announced that Susan Hedman, head of the agency’s regional office in Chicago whose jurisdiction includes MI, was stepping down February 1. Their cost-cutting measures exposed Flint to a local supply of water that was more corrosive than the previous water supply and caused more lead to leach from aging water pipes.
The city last fall resumed buying Detroit water, drawn from Lake Huron, and experts said they believe lead levels are already dropping with the addition of phosphate, which helps form an interior coating on the pipes to prevent lead leaching.
Lead-laced water supply has plagued Flint, a city of 99,000 residents 60 miles northwest of Detroit, since April 2014.
Also Thursday, Michigan officials said they still aren’t certain whether there’s a link between a drinking water crisis in Flint and an increase in local cases of Legionnaires’ Disease.
Snyder Communications Director Meegan Holland confirmed the hiring of Mercury Friday but could give no details.
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The Flint Water Advisory Task Force says its recommendations are more detailed and comprehensive than what the EPA ordered. Messages left with Press Secretary Dave Murray and Chief of Staff Jarrod Agen were not immediately returned.
