Congressman Dan Kildee Leads Twenty-Six Members of Congress to Flint to Meet Directly with Families Affected by Water Crisis

The #FlintWaterCrisis is not just a local Michigan problem—it is a national issue that tells us how the story of how...
Posted by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. on Friday, March 4, 2016

FLINT – Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-05) today led a congressional delegation to Flint, Mich., to hear directly from residents affected by the city’s ongoing water crisis. In addition to Congressman Kildee, twenty-five other Members of Congress joined the trip to Flint, including Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA-12), Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn (SC-06), and leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Progressive Caucus. This is the third delegation to visit Flint with Congressman Kildee in recent weeks.

While in Flint, the members toured the city and held a ‘Speak Out’ to hear directly from families affected by the water crisis. The members also received a briefing from Dr. Nicole Lurie, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that provided an update on current federal response efforts. The briefing also allowed the members to discuss additional resources needed in Flint.

“Flint is a strong community and our families are tough people,” said Congressman Kildee. “While this crisis is a setback for our community, I know we will emerge from this tragedy. Flint families just need the resources to overcome this crisis. State decisions created this crisis, and the state of Michigan must step up and do more to help. The federal government, including the President and numerous federal agencies, has already helped in many ways. Congress should also act without delay to help Flint recover from this man-made crisis.”

“No parent should have to worry about the water their kids drink or the safety of their back yards. It’s outrageous that lead poisoning is an ongoing issue affecting families in Flint and across the country. In the Los Angeles area, including in my district, we are confronting a possible environmental crisis due to contamination from a lead battery plant that could affect up to 10,000 homes.  Families want solutions and they need action now,” said House Democratic Chairman Xavier Becerra (CA-34). 

“What is happening to families in Flint is a tragedy. Every level of government must act in a coordinated effort to solve this crisis. Members of Congress are going to Flint to listen to residents directly and see first-hand what their needs are. With investments in health, education and infrastructure, the children of Flint can live successful, healthy lives. We cannot turn our backs on them, or the children of any other city like it. We must act,” said Congressman Keith Ellison (MN-05).

“The CBC was among the first to demand a thorough federal investigation of the Flint water crisis and we will be visiting with Flint families to further amplify the urgency of this health and environmental crisis. The harm experienced by the residents of Flint is irreversible and multi-generational. Governor Snyder has been a central figure in the decision-making process that led to the water crisis and we look forward to his testimony before the Committee.  The lack of oversight and accountability demands a thorough investigation and we have come to Flint to remind them that elected officials will not ignore this crisis. We will hold the right parties accountable for the lack of oversight and accountability that has led to more than 10,000 children unknowingly being exposed to dangerous amounts of lead in their drinking water. This crisis demands more and we must all do our part to ensure the citizens of Flint have the resources they need, both in the short- and long-term,” said Congressman G.K. Butterfield (NC-01).

“It is unconscionable that the Flint water crisis continues to affect families and children. Not only did the State of Michigan fail to protect and serve its people, the government created the crisis and magnified its effects with delayed responses and outright lies that endangered the public,” said Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03). “We must ensure that every child exposed to lead has access to nutrition and childhood development services to mitigate the adverse effects of exposure. Federal programs continue to play a critical role in aiding Flint and we have to stop this crisis from happening elsewhere.”

“I want to thank Congressman Kildee for organizing today’s visit, and I appreciate my colleagues who represent constituents in other parts of our country for taking the time to hear directly from Flint families affected by this terrible crisis. I am hopeful that the U.S. Senate will act soon on a bipartisan agreement that I authored with Senator Peters to help fix the pipes and address health care needs. However, federal funds do not replace what the State of Michigan is morally and legally obligated to do to meet its responsibility to the community,” said Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).

“The Flint water crisis is not just a local concern or Michigan problem—it is a national issue that tells us how the story of how de-industrialization, de-regulation, and disinvestment can result in tragedy.  What we are seeing in Flint appears to be a perfect storm of global and national headwinds and unforgivable, reckless disregard that must be fixed,” statedCongressman John Conyers, Jr. (MI-13). “I am thankful that my Democratic colleagues in Congress were able to join us here today to hear directly from those that have been impacted and from Dr. Lurie to learn firsthand how we can provide a stronger federal response to bring relief to these families and help remedy the wrong they have suffered.  I thank Congressman Kildee for his leadership and determination to resolve this ongoing crisis.”

“We’ve had the opportunity today to listen to the concerns of Flint residents, and we’ve seen the hard work being done to coordinate services. This week, the Administration announced the expansion of Head Start, Early Head Start – and just yesterday of Medicaid – for Flint residents. However, these actions should only be the beginning. Now it is time for the State to act to solve the crisis they created. Resident of Flint must be guaranteed not only clean and safe water, but continued access to health and educational services for their children the foreseeable future to help mitigate the effects of the tainted water,” said Congressman Sander Levin (MI-09).

“I join my Michigan colleagues in thanking my House colleagues from across the country for visiting Flint to hear firsthand from residents and to learn how we can best work together at the federal level to support them. Flint faces many challenges, but Michiganders are strong and resilient and we are committed to standing together to overcome this crisis. It is also imperative that we ensure this never happen in another community in America,” said Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-12).

“I want to thank Rep. Kildee, Leader Pelosi and my fellow members of the CPC and CBC for making this Speak Out possible. It was so important for the residents of Flint, whose trust has been shattered and whose rights have been violated, to have the opportunity to let Congress know firsthand what they need to rebuild their health and lives. It was also important for my fellow members and me to show the people of Flint that we are here, we care, and we will not stop until the truth about this man-made disaster is revealed and steps are taken to ensure it never happens anywhere in America again,” said Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence (MI-14).

“As a mom, I can’t imagine the horror parents must have felt after learning their children were being poisoned by the water coming into their homes and schools,” said Congresswoman Katherine Clark (MA-05). “It’s outrageous that it takes an emergency like this to underscore that vulnerable families are hit hardest when budgets are slashed without regard for health and safety. I want my colleagues to hear the stories we bring back from Flint so that we can ensure the resources that Flint’s families need to care for their children, fix the problem permanently, and make sure this never happens again to any of our nation’s children.”         

“Today I stand in solidarity with the women, men and children of Flint, Michigan as well as my colleagues to witness firsthand the extent of the devastation caused by the city’s contaminated water,” stated Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09). “The State of Michigan made a clear choice to divert Flint’s  source of water for the sake of saving money with little consideration of the impact on public health. This choice has proven to be catastrophic for the tens of thousands of people living in Flint and in turn created an environmental justice community in the process. Access to clean water is a fundamental human right irrespective of socio-economic status and ethnic origins. I will work extensively to hold those responsible accountable, and fight for justice on behalf of the people of Flint.”

“People should never have to worry about the safety of their drinking supply and parents shouldn’t be afraid of giving their child a simple glass of water. Congress must not only act to help Flint but also ensure this doesn’t happen in other communities,” said Congresswoman Susan Davis (CA-53).

“The Flint water crisis has shown us that the trust and ability to protect our citizens’ basic right to clean water has been shaken. We all have a duty to ensure justice and protection of our citizens. This is an important topic and one that Congress must turn its attention to with urgency and unity of effort to address the harms caused, get an accounting of what happened, understand how the water was poisoned, make the lives of people damaged by this tragedy whole, find justice for those lives that may have been lost and determine and provide for the long-term health needs of those impacted. Not only will the dangers and hazards of this disaster be felt by the residents of Flint, Michigan for years to come, but the American public remains at risk to national security vulnerabilities exposed through our most basic infrastructure that supports the delivery of clean water to homes and businesses nationwide,” said Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18).

“Thank you to Leader Pelosi and Congressman Kildee for organizing this important delegation so Members of Congress can bear witness to the real impact of this man-made and entirely preventable tragedy. My constituents and I are appalled by this injustice and we are committed to doing everything necessary to help this community,” said Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-13). “The tragedy in Flint is a direct result of institutional racism and structural classism that devalued the lives of people living Flint. This happened because public officials with the power to act ignored their responsibility as children and families were poisoned by the very water in their homes. This is simply unacceptable. As Members of Congress, we have a duty to hold officials accountable and take real action to empower and uplift the people of Flint following this unthinkable tragedy.”

“Americans across the country are outraged by the tragedy here in Flint. As Dr. King once said, ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ We simply cannot stand by while our fellow Americans – including thousands of innocent children – are suffering. We are here today because we wanted to meet with the local leaders and families who are confronting this crisis, hear their stories, and stand up for them in Washington. Congressman Kildee is a powerful champion for these families and we are proud to join him in this effort to ensure that justice is done. Flint families deserve answers from the leaders who failed them and solutions that will help them recover from this terrible crisis. We are committed to doing everything we can in Congress to send the resources they need and ensure that those who are responsible will be held accountable. The families of Flint deserve nothing less,” said Congressman Jim McGovern (MA-02).

“We come to the city of Flint, not as Members of Congress or elected officials, but as Americans concerned for the well-being of our fellow brothers and sisters,” said Congresswoman Gwen Moore (WI-04). “The ongoing tragedy occurring in this community demands more than just our collective attention and empathy. It demands swift and effective action from federal, state, and local stakeholders. We are here to let the residents and families of Flint know that they are not alone, for we are reminded by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King that ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’”

"This trip with Leader Pelosi and other Members to our colleague Dan Kildee’s district is special for me because the District of Columbia experienced its own lead-in-water crisis 15 years ago,” said Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC). “No Americans are in greater solidarity with Flint than D.C. residents. The opportunity to talk with actual residents going through this crisis is the highlight of this trip. For me, this is also a fact-finding trip to see whether legislation is in order to make sure other jurisdictions can guard against the harm we least expect--in the water we drink. Flint has become the poster child warning the entire nation to take steps to ensure water is free of lead and other contaminants. The Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment on which I serve has a special responsibility to investigate the safety of our nation’s water infrastructure. The federal government has stepped up by sending many agencies to Flint. However, the state of Michigan itself, whose responsibility it is to provide safe drinking water, has to take the leadership that was so deficient and that could have prevented this crisis. We go back to Washington equipped with a practical to do list that I hope will benefit the people of Flint and the rest of the country.”

“The Flint water crisis is a disgrace to this nation,” said Congressman Donald M. Payne, Jr. (NJ-10). “A glaring lack of oversight created this emergency, and as a result, thousands of children may suffer irreparable harm, never reaching their full potential because of neglect and indifference from Governor Snyder’s administration. We have a moral obligation to protect the health and well-being of our communities. I am proud to join my Democratic colleagues on this visit to listen to the people most impacted by this crisis and see that they are given the justice they deserve.”

“The crisis in Flint is unimaginable,” said Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02). “With thousands of children and other residents exposed to lead contaminated water in their own homes, we need to hear directly from the families affected. Our first priority is to ensure the people of Flint get the resources they need. By joining together, we can start repairing the damage suffered by Flint residents, so they can have faith in their government again.”

“I am glad to be in Flint to hear firsthand from the families who have been affected by this crisis. The adverse effects of lead exposure are myriad, among them decreased academic attainment, increased need for special education, and higher likelihood of behavioral challenges. As Ranking Member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, I am working with Congressman Kildee to mobilize programs and implement policies under my committee’s jurisdiction that will help appropriately respond to this crisis. After taking into account each of these programs that can help Flint children, we estimate that it will cost $1.3 billion in supplemental funding over ten years to ensure every Flint youth is receiving the necessary services to mitigate the effects of lead exposure. I was happy to see the Department of Health and Human Services announce some additional funding for health centers and Head Start this week, but that is only a first step. The impact of lead exposure on young children is long lasting and our response must have a long-term approach,” said Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03).

“I am left heartbroken after speaking with the families of Flint, who have suffered so much." said Congressman Takano. “This terrible crisis was entirely preventable and I join with my colleagues in demanding accountability for those responsible.  I am grateful to Congressman Kildee and Congresswoman Lawrence for their invitation and hope that under their leadership we can protect communities across the country from a similar tragedy,” said Congressman Mark Takano (CA-41).

Last month, Congressman Kildee introduced two pieces of legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives in response to the Flint water crisis, focusing on immediate and long-term investments for Flint. The Families of Flint Act would make critical investments in infrastructure repairs, wrap-around services for families and children exposed to lead, economic development for Flint and long-term health monitoring for city residents. Since the decision to switch the city of Flint’s water source was made by a state-appointed emergency financial manager, Congressman Kildee’s legislation would require state-matching funds equal to the total of the federal bill.

Additionally, the U.S. House of Representatives has already passed Congressman Kildee’s bipartisan Safe Drinking Water Improved Compliance Awareness Act, which would strengthen requirements to have the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) step in to notify the public when concentrations of lead in drinking water are above federal requirements. The bill, supported overwhelmingly by Democrats and Republicans, passed the House 416 to 2 on February 10, 2016.

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Michigan and The Generational Genocide of "The Poors" of Flint

The following is the reasoning as to why I am absolutely repulsed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, Maura Corrigan, and their national , conservative think tanks when it comes to the well-being of children.

The Effects of Lead Poisoning

Michigan intentionally poisoned the children of Flint and actually believed they could get away with it because their conservative leaders have been incrementally promulgating the destruction of the welfare of the U.S. child for a few years.

The rhetoric has been brilliantly crafted to form the image of "the poors" as a "war on poverty" or even "ending generational dependency of welfare" by the likes of the warm, familiar faces of the Republican party.

Michigan did it to tap into the piggy bank of the Social Security Trust Fund.

They call the impoverished population of Michigan "gamers".

The following is an 2013 EPA Memorandum from the Office of Children's Health Protection:

EPA Reaffirmation on Evaluating Health Risks to Children 2013

And here is the Executive Order of 1997 on the EPA and child protection.

Protection of Children From Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks Executive Order 97-10695

As part of the terms of accepting federal funding, the States, each state, including Michigan, agrees to abide by the federal policies by establishing its own state childhood lead prevention policies and programs in child protection.

Michigan's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program

Michigan knew through its grant compliance as a recipient of federal funding and as a monitor of its sub-recipient, the City of Flint.

This is the reason there has been so much push by national conservatives to get rid of regulation through the push to privatization.

The Michigan Emergency Manager Law has a privatization provision revoking state immunities though the ability to throw an EM under the bus.

Privatization has no regulation mechanism over its contractual entities which are "not-for-profits" and there is an inherent conflict of interest in the Attorney General's contemporaneous advisement and advocacy.

The Flint water system is going to a regionalized authority as a privatized, municipal, not-for-profit corporation.

So, now the question is why did Michigan intentionally poison the children of Flint?

The answer is to maximize revenues of the state through Medicaid and its expansion, or rather "Medicaid gaming".

Medicaid gaming is simple.

Michigan has been penalized by the feds for Medicaid fraud, cutting federal funding.  Michigan has to pay it back, so they came up with the game of unnecessarily billing, and even taxing, Medicaid

"The poors" of Flint will immediately benefit with Medicaid cost reimbursed services and Michigan will automatically maximize its revenues while reducing welfare dependent generations by the genocide of lead poisoning.

Then "the poors" will qualify for SSI and no longer be dependant on state social welfare programs, and if they do, they will die off quite soon.

Ergo, the City of Flint is in a national state emergency.

This is why Governor Rick Snyder and his Executive Cabinet needs to be held accountable by the U.S. Department of Justice.  #DOJ

Michigan DEQ and DHHS needs to be snatched and placed under federal receivership.

State's handling of Flint water samples delayed action

LANSING — Lead levels in Flint's drinking water would have spurred action months sooner if the results of city testing that wrapped up in June had not been revised by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to wrongly indicate the water was safe to drink, e-mails show.

The records — obtained by the Michigan ACLU and by Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech researcher who helped raise concerns about Flint's water — show how state officials first appear to have encouraged the City of Flint to find water samples with low lead levels and later told Flint officials to disqualify two samples with high readings. The move changed the overall lead level results to acceptable from unacceptable.

The e-mails also show that DEQ district coordinator Stephen Busch told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Feb. 27 that Flint had "an optimized corrosion control program" to prevent lead from leaching into the drinking water from pipes, connections and fixtures. In fact, the city — disastrously — had no corrosion control program.

Why those DEQ officials took the actions they did is a question at the center of a tragedy that has left an unknown number of children and other Flint residents poisoned by lead, and has led to a federal lawsuit and calls for a U.S. Justice Department investigation. The questions surrounding the testing are in addition to the broader question of why Flint, which was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager at the time, switched its drinking water source, starting in April 2014, from Lake Huron water supplied by Detroit to the much more polluted and corrosive water from the Flint River.

Brad Wurfel, a spokesman for DEQ Director Dan Wyant, declined to say Tuesday why Busch gave inaccurate information to the EPA, why another DEQ official told Flint officials he was hoping they would send him water samples showing low lead levels, or why the DEQ was strict in disqualifying certain water samples with high lead readings but not strict in disqualifying other samples showing low lead levels that did not appear to meet the sampling criteria.

"Most of these questions regard issues presently before the governor's independent after-action review panel," Wurfel told the Free Press in an e-mail. "We don't want to get in front of that review."

On June 25, Adam Rosenthal, of the DEQ's Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, sent an e-mail about the water samples, required under the federal Lead and Copper Rule, to Michael Glasgow, a utilities administrator with the City of Flint.

"Just wanted to remind you/confirm that Flint is on track for a few items," Rosenthal wrote in the e-mail, which he copied to two other DEQ officials.

"We hope you have 61 more lead/copper samples collected and sent to the lab by 6/30/15, and that they are will be (sic) below the AL (action level) for lead," the e-mail said. "As of now with 39 results, Flint's 90th percentile is over the AL for lead."

If 100 lead-in-water samples were listed in ascending order, the 90th percentile would be the 90th sample, meaning 10 samples would have higher readings. To stay below the "action level," which triggers requirements for public notification and steps to reduce the amount of lead in the water, the 90th percentile for Flint's drinking water samples had to be at or below 15 parts per billion. To put it another way, Flint's water would reach an action level if more than 10% of the samples exceed 15 parts per billion.

Melissa Mays, a Flint resident who drank the contaminated water along with her three boys, said there is only one way to read the Rosenthal e-mail.

"The MDEQ informed the City of Flint that they were in danger of going in violation, and they asked for low samples," Mays told the Free Press.

Wurfel wouldn't comment when asked if that's how the e-mail should be interpreted. Rosenthal did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Busch, who was copied on the e-mail Rosenthal sent to Flint, sent an automated e-mail reply that said he is out of the office until Jan. 4.

Had Flint's water sampling come in above the action level, it would have triggered action in July. Instead, it was not until October, after blood test results showed elevated lead levels in Flint children, that the DEQ admitted making a mistake about failing to require the addition of needed corrosion control chemicals to the Flint River water. The state also provided funds to help Flint reconnect to Lake Huron water supplied by Detroit.

The EPA requires that water sampling be done at "high-risk" locations whenever possible. To comply with that, the American Water Works Association says cities such as Flint should collect 50% of samples from homes with lead service lines. For the samples taken in 2015, the EPA rules also required that Flint sample the same 100 homes it sampled the previous year, between July and December of 2014.

But the City of Flint didn't get 100 samples in 2015. After receiving Rosenthal's e-mail expressing a hope for samples below the action level, the city in the next five days collected 30 additional samples, all of which were below the action level.

The DEQ decided that fewer than 100 samples would suffice because Flint's population had dropped below 100,000.

But Edwards said the smaller number of samples the DEQ allowed still should have come from the group of 100 homes tested a year earlier and should have all come from homes at high risk for lead.

The Michigan ACLU, and later the Flint Journal has reported that seven of the additional samples the city collected, or nearly 25% of them, came from a single stretch of Flushing Road in Flint, where the city had replaced a lengthy session of water main in 2007. Not surprisingly, all of those samples measured very low for lead.

In all, the newspaper reported, only 13 of the homes sampled were from the same list of 100 homes tested in 2014. All the homes that were sampled for a second time in 2015 had tested low for lead in 2014. None of the homes that in 2014 had lead levels above the 15 parts per billion action level were sampled a second time.

Edwards told the Free Press the samples were "cherry-picked," and that's a violation of federal law.

Wurfel would not comment when asked if that was the case.

Even then, the 71 samples Flint relied on would have put the city's water above the action level under the original report Flint prepared, dated July 28. Only after two high lead samples were disqualified at the direction of the DEQ, bringing the total number of samples used down to 69, was the water found to be at 11 parts per billion for lead, below the action level.

The revised report, dated Aug. 20, included the following comment from Flint utilities administrator Michael Glasgow: "Revised report after conference call with DEQ staff. Two samples were removed from list for not meeting sample criteria ..."

One of the disqualified samples, which showed lead at more than 100 parts per billion, came from the home of LeeAnne Walters. Walters had subsequently been retested with results coming back even worse and was visited by an EPA official in April. That EPA official, Miguel Del Toral, found that Walters' indoor plumbing was plastic and could not be the source of the high lead readings, as the DEQ had suggested to him.

The DEQ disqualified another high lead-level sample because it did not come from a single-family residence.

On Aug. 4, Walters, other community activists, and concerned pastors met at the Capitol with top aides to the governor and officials from the DEQ. Walters asked why her sample wasn't used and didn't get an explanation. She and others at the meeting say Harvey Hollins, an aide to Gov. Rick Snyder who was last week named the state's point man on the Flint water issue, instructed DEQ officials to get back to her on why her sample wasn't used.

Walters says she never received that explanation, but the DEQ produced a letter sent to Walters by e-mail in response to a FOIA request from Edwards.

In the Aug. 25 e-mail, Liane Shekter Smith, who at the time was the chief of the DEQ's Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance but was reassigned in October after the DEQ acknowledged oversight mistakes in connection with Flint's drinking water, tells Walters her results were disqualified because she uses a water filter.

Walters said that she had been instructed to remove the filter before taking any water samples and always did so.

Though it was strict in disqualifying the high samples from Walters, the DEQ did not strictly enforce other requirements related to the samples, such as that they all come from the same group of homes sampled a year earlier, or that they come from homes at high risk for lead.

"The state is the one monitoring these decisions," Walters said. "They should be doing their job accurately. Someone should be holding them accountable for not doing things the way they were supposed to."

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Michigan Water Decisions Intentionally Targets Poor Kids

First, Michigan intentionally poisons the children of Flint, then it turns around and starts sending out water shut-off notices.

The worst part is not that these state people knew what could happen to the children, nor is it the fact they knew what was happening to the children; they lied.

Flint, second to Detroit, has an astronomical rate of child poverty.

I guess Michigan is reinventing the concept of Targeted Populations.

Welcome to Michigan's child welfare policy.  #DOJ

#DanWyant engaged in a massive action of generational mutation under the guidance of nefarious special interests, just to profit from child welfare.

Year before water change, state knew of risks in Flint

State and local officials knew in 2013 that without proper treatment of water drawn from the Flint River, they risked subjecting the people of Flint to lead-contaminated drinking water.

But the next year, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality OK'd Flint's plan to pump water from the river, and into residents' homes, without adding an important chemical that would prevent contamination from lead in old pipes.

A report commissioned by Flint in 2011 evaluating the Flint River as a long-term source of drinking water, and delivered by the city to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality two years later, included that chemical — phosphate, often referred to as corrosion control — on a list of chemicals required to make river water safe to drink. Two years later, a Flint employee emailed the report to an MDEQ drinking water official, who passed it along to another state staffer, documents obtained by the Free Press via a Freedom of Information Act request show.

For water treatment professionals, the importance of phosphates is obvious: More corrosive water is more likely to degrade the interior of service lines, allowing dangerous substances from those pipes to enter the water. By forming a barrier inside service lines and plumbing pipes, phosphates limit the corrosive effect of water, and stop lead from contaminating the water.

It's also common knowledge that river water, subject to constant changes of temperature and makeup, tends to be more corrosive than lake water — and is likely to require treatment with phosphates. Nor is it a mystery that an aging, broke city like Flint would have older homes with lead plumbing, or that its water distribution system would include lead service lines or welds.

And this is why the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's public response to the drinking water crisis in Flint — a spike in lead levels that's resulted in an increased number of lead poisoned kids — doesn't add up.

By the time MDEQ acknowledged that Flint's water supply was compromised, it was September. The city never started corrosion control. It rejoined DWSD last month.

Warnings unheeded

The report certainly didn't alter the outcome in Flint. But it doesn't even seem to have caused drinking water managers at the city or the state to question the city's water treatment plan, to wonder whether perhaps river water should be treated for corrosion control.

And that, perhaps, is the most shocking part of Flint's water debacle. None of these warnings — not a report listing corrosion control as a requirement for using Flint River water, not test results showing rising lead levels, not an EPA memo calling the city's findings into question — moved the state to action.

Not even a local pediatrician's analysis of blood-lead level screenings for hundreds of Flint kids — finding that an increasing number had elevated blood-lead levels, a reversal of a decades-long trend — caused a sense of urgency among state regulators. For more than a week, spokespeople for Gov. Rick Snyder and MDEQ downplayed and discredited the results.

It's incomprehensible.

MDEQ is charged with overseeing compliance with environmental regulations across the state, with ensuring that companies and cities follow local, state and federal guidelines.

In Flint, there was another layer of state oversight — that city spent the last two years under the oversight of a state-appointed emergency manager, brought in to resolve the city's budget deficit. An emergency manager, with the approval of then-state Treasurer Andy Dillon, OK'd Flint's decision to join the Karegnondi Water Authority, the new regional system. And an emergency manager approved Flint's decision to use river water.

Finding out what happened in Flint will be complicated. Gov. Rick Snyder has appointed a task force to investigate. U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee and state Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, both Flint Democrats, have asked the EPA to investigate. Ananich is calling for a Senate committee to hold public hearings.

There's one more thing the city, or MDEQ, might have learned from that 2011 report about Flint River water: Phosphates are cheap. To prevent lead from contaminating Flint's water, to protect children from the lifelong damage caused by lead poisoning, wouldn't have cost much.

Just $60 a day.

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Updates On Flint Water Crisis Investigation: Emergency Manager, DTE, DWSD, GLWA, GM, TARP, Carlyle Group, Dana Nessel & Her New Special Prosecutor

Yes, the Flint Water Crisis will end up in Detroit because everyone was stealin' so the new Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is going to send in her gurl, Kym Worthy, to see who is under investigation so they can be proactive in taking over the prosecution to save her crew.

It may a campaign financing promise, but, hey, what do I know?

I know this case goes way back and Dana has no intention of addressing trafficking of tiny humans or child poverty in Michigan because her crew needs to fund more campaigns, but then again, child welfare is under a federal investigative purview as is the entire election of 2018.

Anyway, 2019 is going to be busy, busy, busy because there shall be lots of clowning.

FUN FACT! GM TOOK TARP

Another MDEQ employee pleads no contest to Flint water crisis charges

FLINT (WJRT) (1/7/2019) - Another Michigan Department of Environmental Quality employee has pleaded no contest to charges related to the Flint water crisis.

Liane Shekter-Smith, the department's former chief of drinking water and municipal assistance, originally was charged in July 2016 with two felonies and one misdemeanor charge.

She pleaded to a misdemeanor charge of disturbing a lawful meeting, which carries a possible penalty of 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. The other charges were dropped in exchange for her plea.

As part of the plea agreement with Special Prosecutor Todd Flood, Shekter-Smith must testify against other government officials charged in the Flint water cases. She likely will be a witness in the upcoming preliminary hearing for former Emergency Manager Darnell Earley and former Flint Water Department Manager Howard Croft.

If she provides misleading statements or fails to cooperate with prosecutors, Flood said a guilty plea to a five-year felony charge of misconduct in office will automatically be entered on her behalf. A review to determine whether she complied with the plea agreement is scheduled for April.

Shekter-Smith and other DEQ officials are accused of failing to do their jobs and provide safe drinking water for Flint residents after the switch to pump water from the Flint River in 2014.

Fellow DEQ officials Michael Prysby and Stephen Busch both pleaded no contest on Dec. 26 to misconduct in office and tampering with water monitoring reports -- both felonies -- along with misdemeanor violations of Michigan's drinking water law.

With Shekter-Smith's plea, seven of 15 people facing criminal charges related to the water crisis have pleaded guilty or no contest. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as one at sentencing.

Then, this happened...

Flood won’t comment on AG’s request for new Flint water prosecutor

FLINT, MI -- Three days after new Attorney General Dana Nessel said she wants to replace him, special Flint water prosecutor Todd Flood showed up for work, struck a plea deal with a former state drinking water official and refused to talk about his job security.

Flood answered several questions about his future and Nessel with “no comment” on Monday, Jan. 7, following continuation of a preliminary exam in Genesee District Court.

Nessel issued a news release Friday, Jan. 4, saying she had provided Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, a member of her transition team, “with the relevant materials related to the (Flint water) cases and has requested that her office take over the prosecution of the criminal cases on her behalf.”

Worthy issued her own statement Friday, saying she would evaluate the remaining criminal cases filed by Flood but not necessarily replace him.

That sounds like code for, "I am just going to take a look to see who is going to be charged so I can put together a defensive strategy for Dana and company."

Flood was appointed to the job by former Attorney General Bill Schuette. He’s charged 15 current and former city and state government officials with crimes related to the water crisis.

Seven of those cases resulted in plea agreements, three have been bound over to Genesee Circuit Court for jury trials and five are in the process of preliminary examinations in Genesee District Court.

As a candidate for office earlier this year, Nessel was among critics of the Flint water prosecutions, calling them “politically charged show trials” but didn’t say for certain if Flood would be replaced.

Despite the uncertainty, the special prosecutor is operating as though he plans to continue working on the cases.

Kym Worthy will evaluate, not take over Flint water prosecutions

Flood told District Judge Jennifer Manley on Monday that he doesn’t need to return to court to check on the status of the cooperation of former Department of Environmental Quality official Liane Shekter-Smith until at least February. That’s after she’s expected to testify in the preliminary exams for former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley and Howard Croft.

Last month, Flood told Genesee Circuit Judge Joseph Farah that he anticipated remaining on the job after the transition from Schuette to Nessel.

But, the Flint Water Crisis, which happened under the Emergency Manager Law, is still a matter of interest for Elijah Cummings, Chair of the U.S. House Oversight Committee.

https://democrats-oversight.house.gov/investigation-of-the-flint-water-crisis

BI-PARTISAN DEAL LED TO FLINT WATER POISONING FOR PROFIT: THE KAREGNONDI WATER AUTHORITY (KWA)

No Flint water crisis if no Karegnondi Water Authority

KWA started “greatest water war in Michigan history”

GLWA widened war, taking over all of  DWSD

KWA initiator Jeff Wright, a Democrat, tied to scandal-plagued Synagro, alleged money-laundering, shady campaign financing

 

Wright prioritized selling untreated water to DTE, other businesses over the people’s need for treated water

Karegnondi Water Group members get Bond Buyers’
“Midwest Deal of the Year” award in 2014.
Without them, the poisoning of Flint would not have happened.

DETROIT – The mass lead poisoning of the people of Flint, Michigan, a cold-blooded act of domestic terrorism, was contrived for the profit of the Wall Street bond market, corporations and politicians by both Republicans and Democrats with their own agendas.

The two parties are battling the matter out in electoral debates, with Michigan’s Republican Governor Rick Snyder justifiably though hypocritically castigated by Democratic candidates like Hillary Clinton for his role in this unspeakable catastrophe.

“The governor of that state acted as though he didn’t really care,” Clinton said during the NBC News debate in Charleston, S.C. “If the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there would’ve been action.” Clinton’s Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders simply asked Snyder to resign.

In the most  cynically exploitative campaign move so far, Clinton just published the video below. It calls for donations to a Flint non-profit, rather than pledging billions from the U.S. Treasury to save Flint, just as the U.S. Treasury bailed out General Motors, which left Flint, taking with it 72,000 jobs.

No politician has expressed any intention of locking Snyder and cronies up for life without parole, the only sentence appropriate under Michigan law, or of providing the billions of dollars necessary to rebuild not only Flint’s water infrastructure, but the city itself, devastated for decades by its abandonment by General Motors and other corporations.

Ten Flint residents have already died from Legionnaire’s disease linked to contamination of the city’s water.  Tens of thousands more, especially children and babies, face irreversible life-time damage due to the neurological and behavioral effects of lead, according to the World Health Organization.

A petition to recall Snyder has finally 

been approved by the notoriously recalcitrant State Elections Board and will no doubt receive mass support, as it should.

But make no mistake—getting rid of Snyder will not cut out the cancer of racism and profiteering that has devastated Flint, Detroit, and cities across the U.S. for years.

The most blatant example of the bi-partisan midwifery of the Flint water catastrophe is the creation of the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA), in what a Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) spokesman called “the greatest water war in Michigan’s history.”

He was quoted before the creation of the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), which has since robbed the people of Detroit, the largest Black majority city in the U.S., of the entire DWSD, the country’s third largest water and sewerage system, founded in 1836, which had been serving 40 percent of Michigan’s population.

The poisoning of the city of Flint, which is also a majority Black, would not have happened without the creation of the KWA at the instigation of Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright, a white Democrat who has been Drain Commissioner since 2001 and spent 23 years prior to that in the department under former Drain Commissioner Anthony Ragnone.

According to U.S. Census figures, Genesee County is 75.2 percent white, and 20.6 percent Black, with a 21 percent poverty level. Flint is 37.4 percent white, and 56.6 percent Black, with a 41.5 percent poverty level.

Jeff Wright, CEO of KWA, Genesee County Drain Commissioner

In 2013, the KWA began building a 63-mile pipeline to Lake Huron that runs parallel to DWSD’s pipeline for the region. While boasting it will lower water rates, the Authority admits the pipeline will only deliver raw water, unlike the DWSD, which delivers fully treated water. Communities which sign on to it will have to treat their own water, creating ways to do so at additional costs to customers and profits to contractors. Wright said in 2011 that he wanted to bring raw water in for the benefit of businesses in the area.

The pipeline was supposed to have been up for operation by 2015.

The KWA now includes the “Genesee County Drain Commissioner, Lapeer County Drain Commissioner, Lapeer City, Sanilac County Drain Commissioner and the City of Flint,” according to its website. St. Clair County is reportedly also considering membership as Wright courts more regional customers.

Wright, who has a history of shady dealings with water contractors, began the push to create the KWA in 2006. Snyder’s appointee, Flint Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz, later endorsed it as well. In 2013, Wright got the Democratic City Council of Flint to agree to disconnect the city from the DWSD, which had supplied high-quality water to Flint residents since 1967, and connect with the KWA instead.

Due to KWA construction delays, however, Snyder and Kurtz ordered the ultimately disastrous long-term use of the polluted Flint River in the interim, falsely claiming that Detroit had refused to negotiate better rates for its Genesee County customers. While the Flint Water Treatment Plant, using the Flint River, has always been a back-up water supply to DWSD, which gets its water from Lake Huron, the plant was never outfitted to operate with river water for more than 20 days, on an emergency basis.

DTE’s Greenwood Energy Center in Avoca, MI
is on the proposed Karegnondi line.

VOD reader Peter Bernard wrote, “DTE has been involved in the formation of KWA since the beginning. DTE didn’t need treated water to run its turbines. Was it the demand of DTE for untreated water as soon as Flint withdrew from DWSD that caused Flint to pump untreated water into its supply system? I worked for Detroit Edison as a summer intern 60 years ago and they always thought pure water was an extra expense since super-heated stem automatically purified the water driving the steam turbines.”

In 2011, Ron Fonger of the Flint Journal reported that DTE told the KWA board it was interested in purchasing up to three million gallons of untreated water per day from the Authority for its Greenwood Energy Plant.

“Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright called the news ‘very encouraging’ during a meeting of the KWA Board of Directors today, and said others could follow ‘as more businesses are made aware of (what we are doing and) the lower cost of untreated water,'” Fonger wrote, adding that Wright said KWA would work with DTE.

Map shows KWA pipeline in red,
DWSD pipelines in blue.

In 2014, the Bond Buyer magazine gave KWA the Midwest Bond Buyer of the Year award during an elaborate ceremony in New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, for its second sale of $220 million in bonds to finance the pipeline, an intake facility, and two pumping stations.

It earlier sold $35 billion in bonds despite Detroit’s bankruptcy filing.

“Long before Detroit filed its Chapter 9 bankruptcy case in the summer of 2013, Flint and Genesee County, Michigan saw the need to break away from their dependence on the Detroit water system,” the narrator of a video shown at the ceremony said in a disingenuous, factually inaccurate introduction.

“In 2010 they formed the Karegnondi Water Authority, the two governments’ long-term strategy to deliver a more reliable water supply at more reasonable rates. After years of planning and crafting a bond structure with dual backstops to protect investors, the Authority hit the market in early April with its inaugural issue for $220 million in bonds. . . .The governments expect to cover the debt repayments with system revenues, and both put their limited tax GBO payments behind the bonds.”

The narrator said that Genesee County also pledged to cover Flint’s portions of the bonds if it is not able to do so under state emergency management.

Former Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow and former
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick receive Bond Buyer award in 2004
for disastrous $1.5 billion COPS deal.

“Entering a market where local governments across Michigan faced heightened penalties, the authorities sold the bonds to more than 30 investors and achieved borrowing costs below projections,” the narrator said. “The deal paves the way for the County to trade in annual rate increases of about 11.5 percent for ones closer to five.”

The presentation recalled a similar Bond Buyer award given to former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his then-CFO Sean Werdlow in 2004, for the disastrous sale of $1.5 billion in “Certificates of Participation,” or “Pension Obligation Bonds,” an amount that ballooned to $2.8 billion with default penalties and interest swaps. Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr cited the deal as one reason for his improperly authorized 2013 Detroit Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing, but never followed through on a lawsuit he filed calling it “void ab initio, illegal and unenforceable.”

Below is the video presented at the Bond Buyer 2014 awards ceremony, on the Karegnondi Water Authority and the bonds involved.

In 2013, Tucker, Young, Jackson and Tull (TYJT), a Detroit-based engineering and consulting company, was contracted by the Michigan Department of Treasury to provide a study of the proposed KWA, contrasting it with the advantages of Flint remaining with the DWSD. The study strongly contradicted claims the Bond Buyer made at the 2014 awards ceremony, and other made in a study contracted by the community of Swartz Creek. (See full TYJT study at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/FLINT-KWA-TYJT-water_report.pdf,)

DWSD spokesman Bill Johnson

“The Flint City Council’s approval of the Genesee County Drain Commission-backed idea to link Flint and a proposed multi-county connector effectively launched the greatest water war in Michigan’s history, “ Bill Johnson, communications head for the DWSD, said in a press release. “The action ignores a credible state-sponsored study that came out against the ill-advised Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) project. And the vote makes no connection to Flint’s fiscal reality. All things considered, the City of Flint is best served by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD).” (See full release at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/water_war_undermines_flint-dwsd_relations-2013-14.pdf.)

The study concluded that the cheapest and safest option out of eight through 2042 for Flint’s water supply was to provide it directly through an adaptation of DWSD’s Imlay City pumping station, which is closer to Flint. DWSD has always provided water for the area through its Lake Huron Water Treatment Plant at Ft. Gratiot, Michigan, which sends it to the Imlay City station to go to Flint. Flint then supplies it to other regional customers.  (See graph below.)

TYJT noted that the KWA proposal did not account for cost overruns on construction contracts, an almost inevitable occurrence, or provide a back-up water supply as does the DWSD for all its customers in the event of failure of the primary supply.

Why did Wright ignore this study? His connections with shady contractors during his tenure as Genesee County Drain Commissioner beginning in 2001, and earlier in his 23 years serving under former Drain Commissioner Anthony Ragnone, are well-known.

Southwest community organizer Denise Hearn leads protest against Synagro’s Detroit boondoogle outside the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant July 31, 2008.

Wright himself formerly owned a water consulting business called Tara/Aqua Management. During his term as Commissioner, he has signed multiple contracts with Synagro Technologies, Inc. for sewage sludge removal, dewatering, and land application at the county’s Linden and Ragnone treatment plants, from 2002 through 2009, according to a 2010 Flint Journal expose by reporter Ron Fonger.

At least two of the Genesee Drain Commission Synagro contracts, in 2003 and 2005, were signed by James Rosendall, former Synagro vice-president of development who went to prison for 11 months, in connection with the Synagro/Carlyle  bribery scandal that brought down former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, DWSD head Victor Mercado, and former City Council President Monica Conyers, among other Black city officials.

Synagro VP James Rosendall

Rosendall was the only white who was jailed, while Black officials who refused to act as FBI informants received terms as long as five years.

Judge Avern Cohn barred the defense from asking why Synagro and the Carlyle Group were not charged in the RICO indictment.

Whatever you do, do not tell anyone the reason why the defense was barred from asking why Synagro and the Carlyle Group was not charged in the RICO indictment was because there was an ongoing investigation into other matters of interest.  Sssshhhh.......

Wright was an FBI informant against Conyers’ aide Sam Riddle during the probe. Many officials involved in the probe acted as informants rather than being charged as well.

Synagro was purchased by the insidious Carlyle Group in 2007, one of the largest private equity and alternative investment firms in the world which has extensive ties to the global defense industry.

The Carlyle Group’s board has included politicians from around the world, including former U.S. Presidents George H. W Bush and George W. Bush, and their former cabinet members U.S. Secretary of State James Baker III, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, also former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Arthur Levitt, who served under Pres. Bill Clinton.

It is connected to the Bin Laden family and to former Phillippines dictator Fidel Ramos, among numerous others. Synagro went bankrupt in 2013 and was sold.

The KWA’s current major contractors include the omnipresent L D’Agostini & Sons, based in Macomb, at a starting cost $24.6 million for the pipeline and $11.06 million for the intake station on Lake Huron. D’Agostini earlier sued the DWSD because it was barred from further contracting with the department after its involvement in the RICO indictment of Kilpatrick et. al. was exposed. D’Agostini previously did 70 percent of its business with the Department.

The Alabama-based American Cast Iron Pipe Company, which operates one of the largest ductile iron pipe casting plants in the world, has a contract with a starting cost of $84.1 million, while the Flint-based E & L Construction’s contract for the Imlay City pump station has a starting cost of $11.78 million. All this work duplicates DWSD pipelines and intake and pumping stations already servicing the area.

Pipe for Karegnondi Water Authority is hoisted into Lake Huron.

Recently, Channel 2 reporter Charlie LeDuff interviewed Jeff Wright in a story focusing on the profits made by contractors on the Flint water switch. They included Kurtz campaign contributors AECOM, with $18 billion in revenues in 2015, and the engineering firm hired to ensure that the switch to Flint River water would be safe, LAN (Lockwood, Andrews and Norman).

LeDuff reports that firm’s original contract began at $140,000 and ballooned later to $4 million, despite the fact that it did NOTHING to ensure the safety of the city’s water.

(VOD takes issue with LeDuff’s initial contention that Flint ratepayers decided to opt for the KWA because they were paying “outrageous” rates to Detroit. That is a claim that has been made by DWSD’s wholesale customers in six counties for decades, never with an addendum that the communities involved add their own surcharges to the wholesale rates. LeDuff also appears to conclude at the end that water flowing through Flint’s pipes now from DWSD is safe, which it will not be until complete replacement of the corroded infrastructure. )

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