Government officials fought on Wednesday over who was to blame for the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, at a combative congressional hearing that also pitted Democrats against Republicans.
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Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit, said in an email that federal prosecutors in MI are “working with a multi-agency investigation team on the Flint water contamination matter, including the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General… and the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division”.
The city began using the Flint River as a temporary source for drinking water in April 2014 while a new regional pipeline was built to Lake Huron.
Last week, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette named a special prosecutor and investigator to look into possible crimes stemming from the matter.
A spokesman for Snyder rejected the report by the liberal group Progress Michigan on Thursday.
Legionnaires is a type of pneumonia caused by inhaling mist infected with the bacteria Legionella.
Before it ‘fessed up to not ensuring correct water treatment in October, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality assured the governor’s office and the public the lead issue wasn’t serious.
Rick Snyder has always maintained that he learned of a spike in Legionnaires cases sometime in early January. However, Lee-Anne Walters, the Flint resident who was found to have extremely high lead levels in her tap water in early 2015, reportedly delivered the harshest testimony and said that her early appeals for help from officials were “dismissed”. The allegation I find the most shocking is the one in which Moore claims that a short time after the water supply was switched governor Snyder secretly paid $440,000 to supply General Motors with water from the original water supplier even after he was informed the water was corroding auto parts on the assembly line.
Although it has been suspected that the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease was caused by the switch in water sources, there was previously no evidence that the state was aware of that connection. The emails also show some angst in the Snyder administration over the controversy. “If the concerns were determined to be credible, the director was to bring the issue to the attention of the Governor”.
Both Wyant and Wurfel resigned on December 29.
Simone Wofford, 47, said Gov. Rick Snyder’s announcement of a short-term plan to put a protective coating in the pipes isn’t the solution.
About half of the cases had an “association” with a Flint hospital in the two weeks prior to their illness, Wells said.
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“The only way that the people of this state will have faith in the information he provides is if he becomes fully transparent and accountable”, McElroy said.
