Michigan regulators suspended over Flint water crisis

For many, it echoes the lackluster federal response to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Governor Snyder could be called to testify before Congress about the Flint Water Crisis.

Obama already has committed $5 million to Flint last weekend when he officially declared the Flint water crisis to be a federal emergency.

“We hope that this challenge will inspire a friendly competition between these wonderful campaign organizers, with the overall goal of raising as much money as possible for those affected by this awful crisis”, he said.

President Barack Obama said during a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting Thursday that about $80 million in federal funding would be sent to MI next week – part of a nationwide investment in water system upgrades.

Creagh wrote that state officials don’t know whether it’s legal for the EPA to order MI to take such actions.

“There are a number of indications that concerns of Flint’s elected leaders and faith and community leaders were being dismissed as political posturing instead of taken seriously as efforts to address very real problems”, said Walling, who is white and was first elected mayor in 2009.

7 Action News has learned Governor Snyder has just suspended two employees of the Department of Environmental Quality – for their involvement in the city’s water switch and resulting lead contamination.

She says she wants Governor Snyder, the Michigan Department on Environmental Quality, and the EPA to testify.

The unnamed DEQ employees were suspended Friday pending investigations. The workers were not identified. Snyder apologized this week to Flint residents for the state’s failures.

The problem is that nobody knows how badly the pipes were damaged after the state’s disastrous decision in 2014 to use the Flint River as the city’s drinking water source without adding a chemical to control corrosion.

The unelected emergency manager that oversaw the water switch that led to the water disaster has also not been held accountable for the contamination.

The EPA’s order to state and city officials came the same day that the agency announced that Susan Hedman, head of the agency’s regional office in Chicago whose jurisdiction includes MI, was stepping down February 1.

South African comedian Trevor Noah, the host of “The Daily Show”, joked about Flint, suggesting a fundraising campaign in Africa “to save a village in America and get these people drinking the water that they so badly need”.

The Flint Water Advisory Task Force says its recommendations are more detailed and comprehensive than what the EPA ordered.

Carolyn Copper, assistant inspector general in the Office of Program Evaluation for the independent office reviewing EPA operations, said in a memorandum dated Thursday that the inspector general’s office plans to “request documents and interview relevant managers and staff” as necessary.