EPA email: “I’m not so sure Flint is the community we want to go out on a limb for”

Greetings,

EPA email: “I’m not so sure Flint is the community we want to go out on a limb for”

As it became public that the water in Flint, Michigan, was contaminated with lead, the federal official overseeing water quality in the city argued that the city shouldn’t be allowed to use federal money to buy water filters for residents’ homes.

The problem, the official argued, was that Flint had struggled financially and so couldn’t be trusted to use the money wisely.

“I’m not so sure Flint is the community we want to go out on a limb for,” Debbie Baltazar, the water division branch chief for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 5, which includes Michigan, wrote in an email released Tuesday by the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “At least without a better understanding of where all that money went.”
This was a common theme in the Flint water crisis. Top aides to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder argued that the city was exaggerating its water quality problems in order to get more help from the state. It turns out that the EPA was making similar arguments.

Flint had wanted to use money from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, which makes federal funding available for water quality, to buy water filters for residents. Michigan usually uses the money to stop water wells in the state from becoming contaminated.

The EPA was skeptical, arguing that the fund hadn’t been used this way before, that Flint should focus on managing its water and sewer fees wisely, and that if it granted Flint’s request, other towns would jump on the bandwagon…..More Here

Social

EPA email: “I’m not so sure Flint is the community we want to go out on a limb for”