EPA Memo: Flint not a community to 'go out on a limb for'

[Siwsan]

FLINT, Mich. (WEYI) -- In his opening statement at the Congressional Oversight Committee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz revealed a memo from the Environmental Protection Agency about the Flint water crisis.

The memo, sent on September 24, 2015, said, "Perhaps she already knows all this, but I'm not so sure Flint is the community we want to go out on a limb for."

The full context of the memo was not released at this time.

Monica Lee of the Office of Public Affairs with the EPA wrote NBC25, saying that the email is just from one employee and does not represent the feelings of the EPA as a whole. Lee added the EPA is "going to make sure this community gets the clean drinking water they deserve."

She also pointed to a recent editorial by the administrator of the EPA, Gina McCarthy, about the Flint water crisis. You can read the entire editorial here:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michigan-evaded-the-epa-on-flint-we-cant-let-that-happen-elsewhere/2016/03/14/9ecfd46c-e9de-11e5-a6f3-21ccdbc5f74e_story.html


Additionally, former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley said during his testimony that he is being "unjustly persecuted" and that he did not make the decision to move to the Flint River as a water source.

Former city and federal officials pointed fingers at one another for failing to protect the 100,000 citizens of Flint, Michigan, from lead-laced water at a congressional hearing Tuesday as Republicans targeted for blame an Environmental Protection Agency executive who resigned as the crisis worsened.


Amid withering criticism, Susan Hedman sought to defend the EPA's actions to deal with the contamination in the predominantly African-American city. "I don't think anyone at EPA did anything wrong, but I do believe we could have done more," said Hedman, the former director of the EPA's Midwest regional office.

Hedman stepped down Feb. 1 over what she called "false allegations" that portrayed her as sitting on the sidelines during the crisis and that she "downplayed concerns raised by an EPA scientist about lead in the water."

But Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Hedman "dismissed" the scientist's warnings of the dangerously high levels of lead in Flint's drinking water.

"You screwed up and you ruined people's lives," Chaffetz told Hedman.

http://nbc25news.com/news/local/epa-memo-flint-not-a-community-to-go-out-on-a-limb-for

[Rex]

1. SO we commit our own atrocities and pretend it was okay since it was just POC?

Jesusfuckingchristonatrailerhitch!

[Siwsan]

2. It's not just the racial demographics. It is political, too

Flint is actually a pretty racially/economically diverse community. The political lean is heavily Democratic. We are 100% represented by Democrats - our State Rep (Phil Phelps) our State Senator (Jim Ananich), our Congressman (Dan Kildee) and our Senators (Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters.) No one will ever convince me that this wasn't a factor in their apathy, too.

[Rex]

4. I believe it, after 55 years of GOP skulduggery nothing surprises me about them anymore.

Nothing.

[eShirl]

3. criminal

imho