Dear Gov. Snyder: You Have to Go to Jail

[MinM]

19. Snyder ignored and then tried to cover-up a test conducted by EPA scientist Miguel Del Toral

Too late to apologize for poisoning Flint’s water supply

On January 5, 2016 Gov. Snyder finally declared a state of emergency on the same day the Environmental Protection Agency launched its own investigation and that an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Attorney's office was revealed. Snyder's decision came more than two weeks after newly elected Flint Mayor Karen W. Weaver announced her own state of emergency for the city.

Snyder's declaration also comes nearly a full year after a February 2015 test conducted by EPA scientist Miguel Del Toral revealed that the level of lead "was 104 μg/dL and the level of iron in the water exceeded the capability of the instrument to measure."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the presence of lead at levels greater 10 μg/dL can cause severe chronic diseases and neurological impairment in children. It also recommended prompt communication between authorities and families and frequent follow-up testing for victims of lead poisoning...

Instead of open and immediate communication, the Snyder administration chose to suppress or deny mounting evidence of lead poisoning. According to an NPR story last October, MDEQ spokesperson Brad Wurfel (now forced to resign) called Del Toral's report the work of a "rogue employee." One Detroit Free Press article described Snyder administration statements about lead poisoning in Flint through the summer and fall of 2015 as full of "inconsistency and obfuscation."

While Snyder, through his hand-picked Flint Water Task Force, seems intent on blaming everyone else for the problem, his decision to set aside that city's elections and create an emergency manager for Flint played a central role in the events. As part of an ongoing Republican campaign to eviscerate public sector labor unions, weaken environmental protections and enforcement, and to disfranchise African American voters in the state, Snyder signed the controversial Emergency Manager Law. According to one analyst, since the law went into effect in 2012 some 80 percent of Michigan's African American population has lived under a non-elected emergency manager...

http://www.peoplesworld.org/too-late-to-apologize-for-poisoning-flint-s-water-supply/