Rep. Dan Kildee, who represents Flint, Mich., the site of the 2014 lead water crisis, said Wednesday that his staff was barred from attending the second day of an Environmental Protection Agency summit on dangerous chemicals that have contaminated water supplies.
“My staff was not allowed to attend today’s @EPA #PFAS summit, and I represent communities affected by drinking water contamination. [EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s] lack of transparency and willingness to deny access to members of Congress and the media is deeply troubling,” the Michigan Democrat said in a Twitter post.
The EPA closed Wednesday’s session of the chemical summit to media and the public, saying the event was at capacity and is not subject to federal rules on public access.
The agency initially allowed only select reporters and the public to attend the first hour of Tuesday’s opening session of the summit, where Pruitt delivered an opening address. But after an outcry, the agency opened the afternoon session to everyone.
Kildee’s staff was invited to Tuesday’s session, but did not attend it, the EPA said.
Wednesday’s summit meeting was closed to the press and public.
“The first day of EPA’s National Leadership Summit was open to a wide range of groups, including the press, and allowed the opportunity for stakeholders to present concerns and discuss the most pressing needs in addressing PFAS and protecting public health,” said Peter Grevatt, EPA’s director of groundwater and drinking water. “Both state and federal officials had the expectation that the second day of the summit would be a government-to-government discussion between federal and state co-regulators who are working together to address this important issue.”
EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said the summit Wednesday is “not a federal advisory committee event,” so federal rules on public access don’t apply.
The Federal Advisory Committee Act says “any committee, board, commission, council, conference, panel, task force, or other similar group” used by an agency “in the interest of obtaining advice or recommendations” for the federal government must be open to the public.
The day-and-a-half summit, attended by state, local, tribal, industry, and nonprofit officials, is focused on the challenge of removing toxic chemicals known as per- and poly-fluorinated substances, or PFAS, from water supplies. The chemicals have been linked with thyroid defects, problems in pregnancy, and certain cancers.
PFAS have been used since the 1940s in Teflon, nonstick pans, electronics, water-repellent clothes, and firefighting foam.
The meeting comes after emails produced by a Freedom of Information request showed that the EPA helped delay the release of a study that found PFAS in water are harmful to human health at lower levels than the agency previously deemed safe.
The study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the EPA’s benchmark for PFAS, at 70 parts per trillion, is six times higher than what it should be. It also said exposure to PFAS in drinking levels at just 12 parts per trillion can be dangerous.
An analysis published Tuesday by the Environmental Working Group found that up to 110 million U.S. residents may be exposed to drinking water contaminated with PFAS.
Michigan, Kildee’s home state, is planning to spend $1.7 million to test water supplies across the state, including in 1,380 public water systems and 461 schools.
Pruitt this week said he has no authority to release the study, saying that power rests with the Health and Human Services Department, which prepared the study.
HHS plans to release the chemical study soon, a CDC spokeswoman told the Washington Examiner.
