A former Environmental Protection Agency official and the former emergency manager for Flint, Mich., refused on Tuesday to take the blame for the lead water crisis in that city, and instead told a House committee that they wished they could have done more to avoid the environmental crisis.
The EPA’s former Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman, and former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley faced hostile members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in a three-and-a-half hour meeting in which members charged the officials still don’t seem to understand how their inaction affected people.
“You still don’t get it,” said Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, to Hedman at one point. “And neither does the EPA administrator. You screwed up and you messed up people’s lives.”
“I’m kinda glad you quit. I’m glad you resigned,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the committee, to Hedman. “Let me tell you why … there’s something going on in that Region 5 that we need to deal with. I don’t know exactly what it is but there are problems.”
But that didn’t rattle either witness, both of whom refused to take responsibility.
Specifically, Hedman denied reports that she silenced EPA researcher Miguel Del Toral, who had worked on Flint’s lead water issues and prepared a report that was eventually leaked. She also denied apologizing for the report being leaked and said the apology was to Flint’s mayor for a delayed response.
During the hearing, Hedman refused to admit she or the EPA did anything wrong, instead saying she only wished they did more.
“In retrospect … I wish we had issued more frequent and more urgent statements,” she said.
Earley, who was the emergency manager in charge of the city at the time the water was switched in April 2014, said he was not to blame for the crisis because the decision to take water from the Flint River was made before he came into office.
He added that he was not aware of lead contamination during his time in office, and instead was concerned with bacteria and other contaminants.
“That was due to the water system age, the water main breaks we had at the time,” he said. “This was a perfect storm of things happening as we tried to switch from one water source to another.”
In April 2014, a state emergency manager appointed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder approved 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 corrosion in the lead pipes that bring water from the city’s cast iron mains into homes. 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.
Comments from Hedman and Earley did little to settle lawmakers on either side, or Professor Marc Edwards, a witness who is a drinking water expert from Virginia Tech University who worked in Flint. He said the actions of the EPA and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality were criminal and said Hedman’s actions, or lack of actions, showed the qualities demonstrated willful blindness, lack of remorse and repent and being unwilling to learn from mistakes.
“I guess being a government agency means never having to say you’re sorry,” he said.
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., grilled Hedman repeatedly about whether she believed the EPA should have gotten involved quicker.
“When there is a threat to humans, the EPA has the authority to intervene,” he said. But she blamed the state.
“And the state has failed to act,” Hedman replied.
“C’mon Ms. Hedman. The EPA has a responsibility to the citizens, you have to intervene. Not when the state doesn’t do it, when you see that it happens. You have to do it then,” Carter replied.
Chaffetz asked former Flint Mayor Dayne Walling about a request for information he sent to the EPA about Del Toral’s report that there was lead in the water in one part of the city.
“How long did it take before the EPA came back and said, ‘Yeah, that Del Toral report is accurate?'” Chaffetz asked. There was a long silence as Walling didn’t answer. “They didn’t, did they? They never did and that’s the point. You left office, you were there for months and months and months and they never did confirm it.”
Tuesday’s hearing was the first of two hearings scheduled for this week on the crisis. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy are scheduled to testify on Thursday.
