Newsrooms have concluded that Republican Gov. Rick Snyder bears the brunt of the blame for the water crisis in Flint, Mich., explaining in multiple op-eds and reports that the Republican executive did not do enough to address the crisis.
“[T]he Flint disaster, three years in the making, is not a failure of government generally. It’s the failure of a specific governing philosophy: Snyder’s belief that government works better if run more like a business,” the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote this week in a column titled “The Flint disaster is Rick Snyder’s fault.”
“Snyder undertook an arrogant public-policy experiment, underpinned by the ideological assumption that the ‘experience set’ of corporate-style managers was superior to the checks and balances of democracy. This is why Flint happened,” he added.
The Post’s editorial board added separately in a post of its own, “Gov. Rick Snyder (R) waited much too long to respond to the escalating catastrophe.”
What many of these reports downplay, however, is that the Environmental Protection Agency was involved as well in the city’s current health crisis.
Flint officials decided a few years ago to switch the city’s water source from Lake Huron to the notoriously filthy Flint River. The idea was that this would be temporary, cost-cutting fix until a new line to Lake Huron could be secured.
After the city switched in 2014, residents complained immediately about the foul smelling, discolored water that came out of their taps. Researchers discovered later that city officials neglected to treat the water properly, and they eventually switched back to the Lake Huron water supply last October.
By then, however, it was too late: The pipes that carry the city’s water supply were already badly damaged by the polluted Flint River, and state officials are now scrambling to bring clean water to the city’s embattled people.
As it turns out, the EPA was also aware that water drawn from the Flint River had not been treated correctly, and that it would likely contaminate the supply lines as well as the city’s residents. However, the EPA did nothing to correct the issue or warn the people of Flint.
Editorials from the Post and the New York Times have been careful to avoid the EPA’s role in the crisis, and say the lion’s share of criticism goes to Snyder.
EPA’s Susan Hedman said in an interview with the Detroit News that the office tasked with overseeing the Midwest, EPA Region 5, was aware of the contamination problem in April, but that they only “sought a legal opinion on whether the EPA could force action.”
The opinion wasn’t completed until November.
In separate remarks to reporters, EPA chief Gina McCarthy defended her office, saying that the contamination issue in Flint isn’t their fault, and said the EPA “did its job.”
“EPA did its job but clearly the outcome was not what anyone would have wanted. So we’re going to work with the state, we’re going to work with Flint. We’re going to take care of the problem,” McCarthy told reporters, according to Reuters. “We know Flint is a situation that never should have happened.”
Hedman has since resigned.
The Republican governor has declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard to help distribute clean water, but for many newsrooms, it has been too little too late to rectify a situation that for which he is directly responsible.
“Gov. Rick Snyder has been busy apologizing, but the tiny steps he is taking to repair the damage shrink beside the urgency of the problem,” the New York Times’ editorial board said.
“Mr. Snyder and officials who work for him first wasted time trying to shift blame for the catastrophe to the city — at least until an independent task force and internal emails released last week showed that the state was responsible,” they added. “Now he is wasting more time by maneuvering to get out of paying the bill for the huge repairs project.”
Meanwhile, MSNBC aired a segment Monday titled, “EPA cracks whip on Michigan, Snyder cagey on aid money for Flint,” that characterized the issue as one where the federal government is playing the role of the adult in the room.
Celebrities have also gotten in on the action, as Matt Damon this weekend called on the governor to resign.
