EPA Waited 7 Months to Declare Flint Water Emergency: Watchdog

FLINT, MI — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could have taken steps to protect the residents of Flint, Michigan, from lead in their drinking water supply seven months before a federal emergency was declared, the agency’s internal watchdog said Thursday.

Residents of the city of about 100,000 people began drinking lead-tainted water in April 2014 after the city, under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager at the time, switched its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The corrosive properties in the river water caused lead to leach from pipes and taint the water supply.

A federal emergency was declared in January 2016, but the EPA had the authority to do so in June 2015, according to an interim report by Inspector General Arthur Elkins, The Associated Press reported.

Elkins said in the report the Flint water crisis should have generated “a greater sense of urgency” for the agency to “intervene when the safety of drinking water is compromised.”

Local, state and federal officials have shifted blame for the public health catastrophe that caused elevated lead levels in the blood of hundreds of children, who are particularly vulnerable to exposure to lead and can suffer a lifetime of learning and behavioral problems as a result.

A panel appointed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder concluded the Flint crisis was a result of a failure of government at multiple levels, but primarily the state. Still, state officials tried to shift blame to the EPA for not acting sooner.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said her agency “couldn’t get a straight answer” from state officials about what was being done to help the residents of the impoverished community.

“The crisis we're seeing was the result of a state-appointed emergency manager deciding that the city would stop purchasing treated drinking water and instead switch to an untreated source to save money,” McCarthy said during congressional hearings on the Flint water crisis. “The state of Michigan approved that decision.”

But McCarthy also has acknowledged the EPA could have intervened sooner, according to the inspector general's report.

Many residents of Flint are still drinking bottled water more than two and a half years after they began complaining of “third world water” that had a putrid smell, was discolored and had particles floating in it. Their initial complaints were met with reassurance by city officials that the water was safe to drink.

Photo by Paul Hudson via Flickr Commons