Residents of Flint protest outside City Hall in April (ACLU photo)
Curt Guyette, who has been reporting away for months on the Flint water problem, writes in Metro Times that federal oversight is needed to safeguard Flint’s drinking water.
Guyette, an investigative reporter for the ACLU of Michigan, writes:
In the past few weeks, the problem of lead in Flint’s drinking water has quickly gone from being a story largely ignored by the mainstream media to a scandal that’s making headlines nationally.
Faced with overwhelming evidence, state and local officials who adamantly insisted for months that there was no problem have been forced to admit that their unequivocal assurances were completely false.
For that reason, the U.S. EPA needs to quickly respond to last week’s formal petition calling upon the agency to step in and take a greater role in assuring that Flint’s water is safe. Also needed is an investigation by an outside entity with subpoena powers to determine if laws were broken and, if so, who broke them.
One thing is certain: The MDEQ (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) has failed miserably in its obligation to ensure that the public health is being protected. Just the opposite: The agency’s consistent denials that a danger existed only served to create a false sense of security, keeping people from taking the actions needed to help limit their exposure to a potent neurotoxin that can cause irreversible damage — especially to children.
