Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Friday fired the state official who was in charge of overseeing the change in water sources in Flint, Mich., a process that ended up putting lead into the drinking water supply.
In a statement released just after 3:15 p.m., Snyder said the former head of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance unit was fired earlier in the day. While Snyder did not name the official in the statement, the employee is Liane Shekter Smith.
Shekter Smith was reassigned from her post in October and suspended last month, The Detroit News reported.
“Putting the well-being of Michiganders first needs to be the top priority for all state employees,” Snyder said in a statement. “Anything less than that is unacceptable. The DEQ is working to change this culture and ensure mistakes that endanger our residents don’t occur again.”
Shekter Smith is not the first state official to lose their job over the lead water crisis in Flint. MDEQ Director Dan Wyant and department spokesman Brad Wurfel both resigned in December and Susan Hedman, the top EPA official in the Midwest, left her job at the beginning of the month.
Shekter Smith was in charge of overseeing municipal drinking water quality. The state acknowledged in October that it she had made errors in overseeing the switch of water sources in Flint.
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 would take water from the lake.
However, the infrastructure needed to get water from Lake Huron to Flint under the new agency was not yet built, so an emergency manager appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder decided to take water from the Flint River as a temporary measure.
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 Federal Bureau of Investigation is assisting the Justice Department in an investigation into the crisis. Multiple House committees are also investigating the situation.
