So, the EPA Flint Water Crisis started like this:
del Tora: "Hey, boss, people of Flint just let me know the children are being poisoned by the water and no one is doing a thing about it."
Hedman: "Really, let me get a legal opinion, first, then put together a legal defense team to come up with a propaganda campaign to cover up why it took so long for us to do anything to stop it."Feel free to correct me in the comments, below.
Inspector: EPA 'management weakness' prolonged Flint crisis
Lansing — "Management weaknesses" delayed federal intervention in the Flint water crisis after Michigan failed to enforce rules designed to prevent lead contamination and protect public health, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General.
The 69-page report, below, released Thursday highlights known failures by both state and federal regulators that led to the Flint water contamination crisis, but it provides a new level of specificity and includes recommendations to improve oversight.
“While Flint residents were being exposed to lead in drinking water, the federal response was delayed, in part, because the EPA did not establish clear roles and responsibilities, risk assessment procedures, effective communication and proactive oversight tools,” according to the report.
The report cited management problems at the EPA and its Region 5 office in Chicago, which oversees Michigan. Regional managers did not properly address state actions to “disinvest” in safe drinking water requirements dating back to 2010, concluding they were intended to be temporary and not affect public health, inspectors said.
The Region 5 office also lacked an effective risk assessment process, the report said. While initial bacterial violations alone would not have pointed to lead contamination, “the combined information available to Region 5 painted a picture of a system at risk from multiple angles.”
In January 2016, The Detroit News reported that Region 5 water expert Miguel del Toral warned of Flint water problems in a June internal memo, but then-Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman said she sought a legal opinion on whether the EPA could force action that wasn’t completed until November 2015 — after the state finally recognized the crisis.
Oh, those "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending), they are everywhere, are they not!?
Oh, those "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending), they are everywhere, are they not!?
Hedman soon retired after The News' report, but but no EPA officials were ever fired over the Flint crisis. In a March 2016 congressional hearing, Obama EPA chief Gina McCarthy defended Hedman as "courageous" and blamed the state's misleading and insufficient information for prolonging the crisis.
The state didn’t agree to apply corrosion controls until late July and didn’t publicly concede until October 2015 that it erroneously applied the federal Lead and Copper Rule overseeing water quality. The state decided in October to change Flint’s drinking water source from the corrosive Flint River back to the Detroit water system.
The report, based on two years of research and inquires, dings the federal agency but also repeatedly notes the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality holds primary responsibility for ensuring compliance with safe drinking water requirements.
Communication between the EPA and DEQ “did not convey key information about human health risks from lead,” the report said.
MDEQ did not properly develop and maintain an inventory of lead service lines needed to ensure appropriate test sampling of Flint water, according to the inspector general. The state also failed to ensure Flint continues to use corrosion control chemicals when city began using Flint River water in April 2014 and did not provide the EPA with “accurate information” regarding treatment.
The state “did not issue a notice of violation or take other formal enforcement action regarding either requirement until August 2015.,” the report said. “Instead, the MDEQ advised Flint public water system staff to conduct additional tests and to delay corrosion control treatment installation. The decision to delay corrosion control treatment prolonged residents’ exposure to lead.”
The EPA Office of Inspector General first announced the investigation in January 2016, five days after then-President Barack Obama declared a federal emergency in the city, freeing up $5 million in federal aid. The Obama administration denied Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's request for a major disaster declaration because the Flint water contamination crisis was a man-made calamity not created by fire, flood or explosion.
Inspectors issued a preliminary report in October 2016, saying the EPA had the authority and enough information about Flint water lead contamination to issue an emergency order to protect public health as early as June 2015, seven months before it's Chicago-based Region 5 office did so.
McCarthy and Gov. Rick Snyder testified before a congressional committee in March 2016 and faced withering criticism for state and federal oversight failures but resisted calls to resign.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has filed criminal charges against several former and current state employees and officials over the lead contamination and Legionnaires' disease outbreaks that killed at least 12 and sickened 79 others.
Del Toral began raising concerns about Flint water lead content in early 2015 and pressed the DEQ for information about corrosion controls. He confirmed the suspicions in April of that year and two months later summarized the looming problem in an internal memo.
By June 2015, EPA Region 5 knew at least four homes had water with lead concentrations exceeding the federal action level of 15 parts per billion, according to an earlier inspector general report. It was not until Jan. 21, 2016, that EPA finally exerted its authority by issuing an emergency order that laid out steps for Flint and the state to resolve the crisis.
In congressional testimony a month later, the Virginia Tech University professor who helped uncover the Flint water crisis criticized the EPA’s Hedman for discrediting the internal report. But Marc Edwards told Congress the primary blame lies with a few state environmental regulators who “misled” Michigan leaders and residents and tried to “cover up” proof of high lead levels.
EPA Flint Water Crisis Report 7-19-2018 by Beverly Tran on Scribd
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