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EPA issues emergency order over Flint water crisis; administrator who oversees Michigan resigns

 
Published Jan. 22, 2016

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday evening that authorities in Michigan had failed to properly respond to an ongoing crisis involving lead-poisoned water in Flint, Mich., saying it would begin testing the city's water and ordering an independent review of what happened.

In addition, the EPA announced that Susan Hedman, the agency's administrator who oversees Michigan, had resigned in the wake of the crisis. Hedman offered her resignation effective Feb. 1 and Gina McCarthy, who heads the agency, accepted it, the EPA said in a statement.

McCarthy wrote a letter to Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder saying that the EPA was "deeply concerned" about the response in Michigan. She said that there had been some progress being made by city and state officials, but decried "inadequate transparency and accountability" when it comes to the results of water testing and other actions.

Outrage has mounted in Flint over lead that seeped into the city's water supply, an issue that has sparked heated criticism and questions about why it took so long for local concerns about the water to be heeded.

A day before the EPA letter, Snyder released 273 pages of emails that he said he was releasing to give residents "answers to your questions about what we've done and what we're doing to make this right."

In these emails, authorities in the state said they felt the issue was being politicized and questioned research showing elevated lead activity. At one point, a top aide said that state officials felt people in Flint were trying to turn the issue "into a political football" and shift blame. A message with background information from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality discussing the water situation acknowledged that Flint had "tremendous need to address its water delivery system."

The emails only cover correspondence sent to and from Snyder's email address regarding Flint, and so they provide an incomplete picture of how the official response unfolded in Michigan. But they illuminate how top officials responded to a concern that has broken out into a national controversy.

Dennis Muchmore, who was then Snyder's chief of staff, wrote in September that state officials in two agencies felt that "some in Flint are taking the very sensitive issue of children's exposure to lead and trying to turn it into a political football" and pointing blame at the state level.

Muchmore wrote that "the real responsibility" was on the local level, but continued that "since the issue here is the health of citizens and their children we're taking a pro-active approach" in responding.

In April 2014, Flint stopped getting water from Detroit and began using water from the Flint River. The change was announced in a news release that acknowledged "lingering uncertainty about the quality of the water" and also sought to "dispel myths and promote the truth about the Flint River and its viability as a residential water resource," assuring the public that the water would be tested.

Residents quickly began complaining of water that smelled or was discolored. Flint began getting water from Detroit again in October 2015.