Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder will testify to Congress March 17 about his state’s response to the lead water crisis in Flint.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee confirmed that Snyder and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy will testify that day about the crisis.
The hearing will be the second of two the committee will hold that week about Flint. On March 15, former Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, former EPA Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman, EPA researcher Miguel Del Toral and Virginia Tech researcher Marc Edwards will testify.
The hearings will be the second and third hearings about Flint that the House Oversight Committee has held. On Feb. 3, the committee brought leaders from the EPA and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, a Flint resident and Edwards in to testify.
In April 2014, Flint switched its water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which draws water from Lake Huron, to a local agency that also took water from the lake.
The infrastructure needed to get water from Lake Huron to Flint under the new agency was not yet built, however, so an emergency manager appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder decided to take water from the Flint River as a temporary measure.
But the water from the Flint River is so polluted and acidic that the water ate away at the lead pipes bringing water to the city’s homes.
The state did not require Flint to put any corrosion-control chemicals into the water. Those chemicals could have prevented the leaching of lead into the drinking water. The water is now being treated with those chemicals, but the corrosion controls need to once again build back up on the city’s pipes.
The Justice Department and FBI are investigating.
