FBI joins Flint, Michigan water investigation

But they’ll be missing at least three key figures at the center of the crisis: Michigan’s Republican governor, the emergency manager he appointed to deal with Flint’s fiscal woes, and Miguel Del Toral, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientist who raised concerns that Flint’s water testing could be flawed and the lead contamination widespread.

Flint’s drinking water became contaminated with lead in April 2014 after the city, while under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, temporarily switched its source from Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to water from the Flint River, treated at the Flint water treatment plant.

In addition to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the EPA, the team includes the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Gina Balaya, a U.S. attorney’s spokeswoman in Detroit, told The Associated Press in an email.

The FBI is now investigating the contamination of Flint’s drinking water, a man-made public health catastrophe, which has left an unknown number of Flint children and other residents poisoned by lead and resulted in state and federal emergency declarations.

State officials finally admitted there was a problem with the water in the last part of 2015. About one-third of the infected people’s homes received Flint water, which was found to have elevated lead levels after the city began drawing from the Flint River. The former Flint emergency manager is stepping down from the same role for Detroit’s public school system, and will not testify in a congressional hearing on Wednesday about Flint. Still, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder urged all residents to submit a free water test kit, which can be picked up and returned to designated Flint fire stations.

“It’s decreasing very slowly”, said Susan Masten, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Michigan State University.

While immediate treatment of the water was not required under federal law, “corrosion treatment should have been required by the MDEQ”, said Creagh, who took over as head of the state agency last month following the resignation of Dan Wyant.

“To give the citizens of Flint the notice they needed that this water system was unsafe to drink, the information they needed about how to protect themselves from it, the ability to outline alternate drinking water supplies and filters for their taps, and the ability to order the state to do the correct thing”, Gade said.

The city of 99,000 people is facing an ongoing water crisis after high levels of lead were detected in drinking water across the city. However, she has absolute faith in the EPA’s ability to stop another Flint from happening again.

Residents of Flint were also exposed to chemical byproducts, bacteria and Legionnaires’ disease – but were repeatedly told the water was safe until this fall.

US Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said Flint was a “manmade crisis” and urged Republicans to approve more aid.

The EPA’s internal watchdog has announced plans to examine the circumstances of, and the agency’s response to, the water contamination.

Earley has faced growing criticism in recent months both for what happened with the water supply in Flint and the problems within the Detroit schools such as crowded classrooms, crumbling schools, and the district’s mounting debt.