FLINT – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is ordering the state and city of Flint to take a series of immediate actions to address the city’s drinking water crisis, declaring the state and city “have failed to take adequate measures to protect public health.”
Additionally, in a series of rapid developments Thursday evening, President Barack Obama said the federal government would send $80 million to the state to assist with the drinking water crisis in Flint, and the director of the EPA region that covers Michigan, Susan Hedman, tendered her resignation effective February 1.
“Our children should not have to worry about the water they’re drinking in American cities,” Obama said in a speech to the nation’s mayors in which he announced the $80 million.
No further detail was available on what, specifically, the money would go toward, but Obama expected it to be transmitted next week. Governor Rick Snyder had requested $96 million in federal disaster assistance. Obama had denied the governor’s request for a major disaster declaration although he has declared a state of emergency.
U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint) said the money, new for the state and not previously planned to be appropriated, would go toward a state revolving fund. Kildee, in an interview, said the funds are not specifically earmarked for Flint, but that’s how the state should use them. He also urged a sizeable portion of the aid to go to Flint in forgivable loans.
“This is an opportunity for the state to put their money where their apologies are and fund this in a more robust way than the $28 million appropriation,” he said, referring to the bill moving through the Legislature with emergency aid for the city. Snyder has said the aid is a first step.
Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich (D-Flint) praised the news of the federal aid.
“This is the type of leadership and action my community deserves,” he said in a statement. “These resources will help with immediate health and safety needs while we continue to push for the long-term support the state must provide.”
Hedman had emerged as one of the central figures in the scandal. Experts and advocates for Flint residents said she could have alerted the public to worries EPA staff had about the DEQ’s decision not to require Flint to add corrosion control treatment to the water once the city began drawing water from the Flint River.
The more corrosive river water caused lead service lines to leach into the drinking water. Had the water contained the necessary treatment, the lead lines would have retained a protective layer.
The Detroit News reported this week that Hedman, rather than airing her concerns publicly or having the EPA take action, waited for a legal opinion on what the EPA could do. An EPA water expert, Miguel Del Toral, had discovered the problem in February and grew so frustrated at the agency’s unwillingness to act that he leaked his memo about the problem to some residents and broke agency policy by speaking on the record about his concerns to the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan’s investigative journalist, Curt Guyette.
In a statement, the EPA said Hedman offered to resign and “EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has accepted given Susan’s strong interest in ensuring that EPA Region 5’s focus remains solely on the restoration of Flint’s drinking water.”
Of the resignation, Ananich said: “We’ve said since day one everyone at every level needs to be held accountable for whatever role they had in this crisis. It’s unfortunate the Legislature and state aren’t moving nearly as swiftly as the federal government now appears to be.”
Meanwhile, the EPA order issued to the state outlines sweeping oversight from the federal agency and follows a phone conversation between Governor Rick Snyder and McCarthy.
“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 said in a letter to Snyder. And “there is an increasing concern about capacity to carry out the recommended actions to safely manage Flint’s drinking water system.”
The order requires the state to within five days create a public website where it will post all reports, sampling results, plans, weekly status reports on progress toward all requirements and other documents.
The order further mandates the state and city respond in writing within 10 days to all of the EPA Flint Task Force’s requests and recommendations made on November 25, 2015, and subsequent dates. The state and city also within 10 days must provide water quality measurements on things like pH, total alkalinity, chloride, temperature and other data), all lead in water testing results for the city since January 2013 and identification of areas in the city with elevated blood lead levels.
The state and city also must provide within 10 days an inventory of homes with lead service lines, addresses of homes that have had water service interruptions or street disturbances in the past year and the addresses of currently unoccupied homes.
The EPA also has ordered the state and city to add corrosion inhibitors at levels sufficient to re-optimize corrosion control.
Within 14 days, the state and city must submit to the Department of Environmental Quality and post to the new website several items, including a sampling plan for daily monitoring of water quality parameters and an operations plan for corrosion control equipment.
The order further bars the city from switching to the new Karegnondi Water Authority, expected to come online this summer, until the state and city submit a plan, subject to public comment, demonstrating the city has the technical, financial and managerial capacity to operate the water system in compliance with relevant laws.
Within seven days, the DEQ, with the city’s concurrence, must engaged a panel of independent experts on drinking water treatment and Flint community members to make public recommendations on the steps needed to “mitigate the imminent and substantial endangerment to the health of persons” and the general operation of the city’s water system.
To help ensure transparency and accountability, McCarthy said in her letter to Snyder that the agency would work with the city in the near-term to oversee and participate in the collection of Lead and Copper Rule drinking water samples by Flint residents and would have those samples analyzed in a “certified laboratory,” with results available to the public.
But the EPA’s ability to help is limited in scope, she said, and eventually the state will have to step up to continue restoration of safe drinking water in Flint.
“The EPA underscores that the state and city ultimately will need to work with independent recognized experts to undertake a broader effort to fully assess and verify the safety of Flint’s drinking water system-wide,” the letter said.
Snyder Press Secretary Dave Murray, responding to the EPA’s actions, said in a statement: “The state of Michigan stands ready to work with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and all agencies to fix the water crisis in Flint. As Governor Snyder said in his State of the State Address earlier this week, government at all levels failed the people of Flint. He accepted accountability for that, and noted that federal, state, and local leaders broke the trust of the people. We should all focus on the needs of Flint – both immediate and long-term. Making the city whole again must be our top priority.”
Of the $80 million, Murray said the state is grateful for the assistance.
U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Township) praised the president’s decision on the funding and called Hedman’s resignation appropriate. He also commended the EPA for stepping into the situation.
“For months, the state of Michigan and MDEQ failed to take the necessary steps to ensure Flint residents had clean, safe drinking water,” he said in a prepared statement. “I am pleased the EPA has announced it is stepping in and taking immediate action to protect the public health and increase transparency.”
This story was published by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on www.gongwer.com
