Ten Years After Flint Water Crisis, the Michigan EPA Still Won’t Own Its Failure

This week marks 10 years since former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder asked then President Barack Obama to declare the Flint Water Crisis a federal emergency. Snyder declared a state of emergency for Genesee County on January 5, 2016.

READ MORE: 4 Times Genesee County Has Been Under a State of Emergency

The decisions to not only switch the local water supply from the Great Lakes Water Authority to the Flint River, but also to not properly treat the supply triggered the crisis.

How the EPA Was Supposed to Protect Flint

But here’s the part that still makes your stomach turn. The EPA was supposed to be the backstop. The adults in the room. The agency whose entire job is to protect people from exactly this kind of disaster. And instead, according to Senator Elissa Slotkin, they looked the other way.

Warnings That Never Reached the Residents of Flint

MLive reports that on the Senate floor this week, Slotkin said the EPA buried reports of lead poisoning while Flint families were drinking, bathing, and cooking with contaminated water. Internal warnings were watered down. Memos were edited. Red flags were ignored. All while kids were being exposed to lead.

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And ten years later, the EPA is still saying, 'Not our fault.' They are still fighting Flint families in court, and still refusing to fully own up to what happened.

READ MORE: Who Gets Settlement Payments From The Flint Water Crisis

Yes, the city failed. Yes, the state failed. But when the final safety net fails too, that’s not a mistake. That’s a betrayal. Settlement payments started going out to residents just last month as Flint is still waiting for accountability. And frankly, it’s long overdue.