Snyder blames 'career bureaucrats' for Flint crisis Paul Egan, Detroit Free
Press Lansing Bureau Gov. Rick Snyder told the U.S. House House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee Thursday that state officials in both the
Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Health and Human
Services
failed the state of Michigan in the Flint drinking water crisis. Snyder and
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy appeared
jointly
before the committee during its third day of hearings into what caused the
Flint drinking water public health crisis and how to prevent a recurrence. Each
time there were red flags raised about the Flint drinking water, "career
bureaucrats" said the water was safe, Snyder testified. Much of the fault lies
with "these people that made these terrible decisions that showed a clear lack
of common sense," Snyder testified. But because they worked for him, he
is responsible, he said. Snyder also told the panel he has ordered
investigations of the state health department by the attorney general and the
auditor
general. He said he didn't learn about a possible link between outbreaks of
Legionnaires' disease and the Flint River until January 2016, though officials
in both DHHS and DEQ knew much sooner. "This should have been handled better,"
he said of the state health department. Earlier, reading from prepared remarks,
Snyder said: "I am not going to point fingers or shift blame; there is plenty
of that to share, and neither will help the people of Flint. But the governor
went on to say that an EPA water expert tried to raise the alarm about Flint
water in February 2015, "and he was silenced. "Inefficient, ineffective, and
unaccountable bureaucrats at the EPA allowed this disaster to continue
unnecessarily," Snyder said in the prepared remarks. Flint's drinking water
became
contaminated with lead in April 2014, when the city, while under the control of
a state-appointed emergency manager, switched its drinking water source
from Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit water system to Flint River water
treated at the Flint water treatment plant. The state DEQ failed to require
the addition of needed corrosion-control chemicals as part of the treatment
process, and the corrosive Flint River water ate into pipes, joints and
fixtures,
sending unsafe lead levels into Flint homes and businesses. The city returned
to Detroit water system in October, but a potential hazard remains because
of damage to the water distribution system. Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or
pegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.
