GOP Senators Launch Probe of EPA Role in Flint Water Crisis

If anyone said anything to the contrary, as we did when we started working with the residents, we were attacked.

Yesterday, it was revealed that former Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Communications Director Brad Wurfel became aware of a potential connection between Legionnaire’s disease and Flint water back in March of a year ago. The amendment was the product of bipartisan negotiations over the last week, and would help Flint, Michigan and other states that have emergency water crises. The executive states to an underling seated across from him: “The beauty of delegating authority is that nothing ever reaches this desk!” Because at this point, resignation is about the best scenario for Snyder and for the poisoned city of Flint.

Clinton’s visit follows several weeks of action to bring attention to the crisis in Flint.

That’s only making residents in Flint even more uneasy. In Flint, Michigan, where the municipal water supply has been contaminated with lead, undocumented immigrants have been turned away from getting emergency water at distribution centers because they couldn’t produce driver’s licenses. The acidity in the water corroded pipes, sending high levels of lead into the city of Flint’s water supply.

In any case, the email exchange sheds new light on the depth of the criminal indifference by state quality officials to the dangers posed by Flint River water. Lead can damage the nervous system.

In 2014, a dozen samples of drinking water in the Glades were found to have higher levels of total coliform bacteria than are acceptable by the county Health Department.

Ironically, the EPA could have been the hero of this story, Edwards said. Money is coming into the city for bottled water, filters, testing and health care, but Brown says what would really help her is relocation assistance. An ex-prisoner says he served fellow Genesee County Jail inmates the poisonous stuff for months.

The moves to revise the rule come as the agency works to implement a separate law, the Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act, passed in 2011 that lowers the allowable lead in plumbing fixtures and materials to a quarter of 1 percent, down from the current standard of 8 percent. But since it’s been weeks since he consumed any lead-tainted water, those results might not tell the family how badly he was exposed or whether his medical issues are related. With his colleagues at his side, the congressman expressed his frustrations with the state, saying it has failed the people of Flint and that the response so far as not been enough.

They would also direct $400 million to the EPA to fix or replace Flint’s water infrastructure.