House Democrats voiced concerns about whether the Environmental Protection Agency has the financial wherewithal to help prevent catastrophes similar to the lead water crisis in Flint, Mich.
In a hearing about the EPA’s $8.27 million proposed budget for fiscal 2017, multiple Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee’s interior and environment subcommittee asked Administrator Gina McCarthy if her agency has the budget to deal with Flint’s lead-contaminated water.The proposed budget would spend less on water programs than the previous year’s budget.
“It would seem to me, to respond appropriately and adequately, you would have to take resources from other areas that would further weaken EPA’s ability to respond to public health emergencies,” said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.
In April 2014, a state emergency manager appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signed off on a symbolic vote from the Flint City Council to change the city’s water source. The move aimed to cut costs by requiring the city to take its water from the Flint River instead of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department while a new pipeline was built to connect the city to Lake Huron.
The Flint River water, however, was so acidic that it caused the lead pipes bringing water from the city’s cast iron mains into homes to corrode. Lead leached off the pipes and into the drinking water throughout the city.
The state and the federal government have declared a state of emergency, and Flint residents are not able to drink the water coming out of their taps.
The EPA’s proposed budget shifts money away from clean water programs and instead would make $2 billion available to update the nation’s drinking water systems. That’s less than was budgeted for water projects in fiscal 2016.
Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., said the Flint crisis shows the need for better federal regulation of drinking water.
She said Congress must make it easier for the EPA to step in during emergencies such as Flint’s. She added that political point-scoring and austerity measures are keeping the agency from fulfilling its mission, and she pointed to the reduced spending on water programs as proof.
“I have to wonder if these cuts were proposed not based on their merits, but because the agency was trying to meet other needs within their already strained budget,” she said.
The EPA has been targeted by congressional Republicans for not doing more to stop the crisis. An EPA researcher knew in February 2015 that there was lead in Flint’s water, but the agency took no action for months and did not tell the public.
The agency also has been slammed for delaying by years an update to the federal lead and copper rule while not enforcing the current rule more stringently.
McCarthy declined to openly gripe about the EPA’s resources, but did say that budget restrictions will mean the agency has to rely on states.
“We’re doing what we can with the budget that we have, but it’s clearly a larger problem that we’re facing than we’re able to support,” she said. “It’s going to take a long time.”
During a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday, McCarthy refused to take direct responsibility for the crisis. Instead, she often pushed the blame onto state officials she said misled the EPA.
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, said he watched the hearing and was hoping to hear more talk about solving what’s happening in Flint. Instead, all he saw was finger-pointing.
“Quite frankly, I was dismayed,” he said.
