The EPA's Hush-Hush Response to the Flint Water Crisis [View all]

[Octafish]

It seems the government really doesn't give a damn about the citizens any more -- the non-rich ones, anyway.



The EPA's Hush-Hush Response to the Flint Water Crisis

'At that point, you do not just have smoke, you have a three-alarm fire and should respond immediately,' charges water researcher

by Lauren McCauley, staff writer
CommonDreams, Jan. 13, 2016

Officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for months knew about the poisoning of the Flint water supply and, rather than raise alarm and stop residents from drinking the lead-tainted water, took a backseat on the matter.

The Detroit News reported late Tuesday that federal officials began making inquiries in February and the region's top EPA official, Susan Hedman, confirmed to the newspaper this week that as early as April the agency knew about the lack of corrosion controls in the water system.

According to the reporting:

An EPA water expert, Miguel Del Toral, identified potential problems with Flint’s drinking water in February, confirmed the suspicions in April and summarized the looming problem in a June internal memo. The state decided in October to change Flint’s drinking water source from the corrosive Flint River back to the Detroit water system.

Critics have charged Hedman with attempting to keep the memo’s information in-house and downplaying its significance.

Federal officials for months engaged in a bureaucratic, behind-the-scenes "battle" with Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) "over whether Flint needed to use chemical treatments to keep lead lines and plumbing connections from leaching into drinking water," the paper reports. Hedman argued that it was not the "role" of the federal agency to regulate local water operations.

CONTINUED w/links...

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/01/13/epas-hush-hush-response-flint-water-crisis