Finger-pointing in Flint: Government failure at every level

An advisory panel to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Friday recommended steps the state should take to restore reliable drinking water to Flint, including hiring an unbiased third party to declare when the system is free of lead.

Flint’s lead contamination problem came after a 2014 switch in water supplies to save money.

The nation was watching this week as Gov. Rick Snyder addressed MI residents about the water crisis in Flint.

Several people have called for Snyder’s resignation over the water woes in Flint, including Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, while Hillary Clinton has called the situation unconscionable.

While Snyder has taken the lion’s share of the blame so far, like Bush he’s also tried to redirect criticism towards “a huge bureaucratic problem… part of the problem with culture in government” in other statements, reports the Detroit News.

The scandal has been exacerbated by the seemingly nonchalant attitude of city officials to the outcry from residents, many of them poor blacks. “Bring all the water you can”, Callaway said.

Darnell Earley didn’t come up with the plan to channel corrosive river water into Flint’s old lead-lined water pipes, causing a health emergency.

As the officials from the federal, state, and local level work to recover, what about recovering its reputation?

At the Department of Environmental Quality, two key employees – Liane Shekter Smith, who was the chief of the DEQ’s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, and Stephen Busch, a district manager in the drinking water division for MDEQ, whose area of responsibility included Flint – have been reassigned and no longer have any role in dealing with the Flint water crisis.

The Oscar-nominated actor is not the first to call for Snyder to resign amid the water crisis.

Lead-contaminated water flowed for more than a year in Flint, which finally stopped sourcing its water from the river in October. Kincaid and others said the managers’ tendency to ignore local complaints played a role in the water fiasco, since residents had complained about taste and color of the water. Later on a year ago, lead poisoning became prevalent among children, which lead to the Flint water crisis.

Vehicles make their way through downtown Flint, Mich., Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016.

Mary’s Catholic Church in Flint told Fox News Latino, “We are getting requests from people for water and water filters”.

According to Muchmore’s emails to Snyder, officials at the Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Health and Human Services felt some people in Flint were trying to turn the lead issue into “a political football”, claiming the agencies were underestimating the danger and trying to shift responsibility to the state.

“The order demands that the state take certain actions, but fails to note that many of those actions … have already been taken”, Creagh, who recently replaced an official who resigned over the water crisis, wrote in his required response to the EPA’s order. Instead, Obama declared an emergency rather than a disaster, qualifying the city for $5 million.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency knew about the problem since April, and said nothing.

Messages left with Snyder’s office and the EPA were not immediately returned.