On Thursday , more than four years after the water crisis in Flint , Michigan get , the Environmental Protection Agency ’s Office of Inspector General ( OIG ) released afinal reportpointing blame right back at the EPA , as well as the state and city .
None of this come as surprisal . In 2016 , the OIG issued areportthat concluded quite similarly : The EPA should ’ve and could ’ve done more rather to protect the people of Flint . This latest report , however , provides much more point on how various agencies failed the city and mickle of suggestions on how they can be better next clip .
Flint ’s water organisation was n’t fulfill the criterion require under the federal Lead and Copper Rule , which falls under the Safe Drinking Water Act ( SDWA ) . That rule requires the United States Department of State to keep track of where lead Robert William Service lines are in purchase order to taste the water supply for lead ( a nationwide trouble , the EPA find out ) , as well as using appropriate corrosion controller measures to prevent pipes from leach lead into the water .
What ’s perhaps the most uncheerful thing to add up out of this report is that the EPA bang as early as 2010 that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality ( DEQ ) was slacking on its implementation of the SDWA . The department had stopped issue infringement for any H2O system throughout the state of matter that reported water monitoring results lately and/or was n’t providing information on lead service furrow localization .
And yet until Flint ’s water made national headline toward the goal of 2015 , the EPA did nothing , despite complaints from Flint resident about the water caliber beginning in May 2014 .
“ loosely , there is trivial or no correlation between citizen ailment about water and lead mental object , ” area 5 staff pen in the report .
Well , they certain as hell were wrong . An parking brake gild on the position did n’t come until January 2016 .
Fingers have level in all directions in terms of who ’s to pick for the Pb . In summation to the EPA and Michigan ’s DEQ , there ’s Governor Rick Snyder , who ’s seen no repercussions . Now , the time has come to hold back finger pointing and find solutions .
From the OIG ’s linear perspective , it ’s passably elementary : Everybody , get your horseshit together . In the situation ’s own Holy Scripture , “ We commend that EPA headquarters and EPA Region 5 use moral learned from Flint to improve its superintendence of Safe Drinking Water Act compliancy . ”
The EPA needs to be more clear on agency roles and responsibilities so someone know how to take action at law next fourth dimension a state of matter is n’t follow the practice of law . It also needs to make certain faculty know the ins and out of the SDWA because apparently there was disagreement on what was want under the number during the Flint H2O crisis . That means maintaining clear communication with the DEQ so that everyone ’s on the same page .
The agency also want to keep better track of citizen complaints . If a bunch of people are complaining about one thing , well , maybe that ’s a red signal flag .
hint is an issuethroughout the land . Flint ’s horrible situation reminded us of that . And it goes on . Until residents find safe to wassail from their spigot , the crisis ai n’t over .
Flint Water CrisisLead
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