SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
'Part 1984. Part Enemy of the People': Flint Residents Share Outrage on Capitol Hill
As affected families pack halls and overflow rooms in Congress, people want to know why Governor Snyder is hiding
Feb 03, 2016
The people of Flint on Wednesday carried their outrage and heartbreak from Michigan to Washington, D.C., where they described to a congressional panel how the officials charged with protecting their families were responsible for turning their homes into a toxic "ground zero."
The situation in Flint is "surreal. It's part 1984. It's part Enemy of the People," Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards told the U.S. House Oversight Committee. Edwards, who helped expose the lead-tainted water crisis, explained how state and federal agencies blatantly disregarded science and ultimately failed to protect the children in that community, and elsewhere.
In the first such congressional hearing on the Flint crisis, the committee has been charged with investigating the events leading up to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's late-January decision to issue an emergency order.
LeAnne Walters, a Flint mother whose lead-tainted water was the first tested by outside researchers, described her home as "ground zero" in the crisis. Walters said that the "city and the [Michigan Department of Environmental Quality] still told everyone the water was safe as the EPA sat by in silence," calling it the "ultimate betrayal of citizens."
"This is not a Flint problem or a rare anomaly," she added, "it is a national problem." According to her research, only 10 states accurately test water for lead.
Interspersed amid personal testimony from affected citizens, who lined the halls and packed an overflow room, state and federal officials were grilled about the heightened lead levels in the city's water supply--and when they knew it.
The Detroit Free Press, which is live-blogging the hearing, reports:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's emergency order last month took over water sampling, accusing the state of Michigan of delays and a lack of transparency.
But the state Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) -- which has taken the brunt of the blame for not requiring Flint to have corrosion control which could have kept lead from leaching from old service pipes -- has pointed a finger of blame back at EPA as well, saying the agency kept the state waiting months for a legal opinion about whether such corrosion control was required.
At one point, Edwards said that before multiple agencies turned their back on the damning evidence, the crisis "probably started innocently... and someone simply forgot to follow the law" by failing to add phosphates to the new water source, which caused the toxic corrosion.
Outside of the finger-pointing, much of the blame for the crisis and cover-up has been leveled at Republican Governor Rick Snyder and the state's Emergency Manager law. During the hearing, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) said he never liked the law because "it takes power away from the people in the community."
"Political philosophy matters, political choices have consequences and Flint is the most dramatic in our generation."
--Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.)
"This crisis," charged Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), "is the consequence of putting ideology ahead of human beings and their needs and their welfare."
"Political philosophy matters, political choices have consequences and Flint is the most dramatic in our generation," he continued.
Connolly said that he lays this crisis "at the doorstep of those who share that philosophy," adding that he wants "to see the governor at this table."
Neither Snyder nor Darnell Earley, who served as Flint emergency manager from September 2013 until January 2015, were present at the hearing on Wednesday--a fact that many seized on as an attempt to evade accountability.
The committee said Tuesday that they had voted to subpoena Earley--who notably resigned that same day from his position as emergency manager of the embattled Detroit Public School system--but said he had "refused service."
Committee member Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) declared at the start of Wednesday's hearing that he will direct U.S. Marshals to find Earley and "hunt him down" if necessary.
Updates on the hearing are being shared online under the hashtag #FlintWaterCrisis while ongoing deliberations can be watched live here.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Lauren McCauley
Lauren McCauley is a former senior editor for Common Dreams covering national and international politics and progressive news. She is now the Editor of Maine Morning Star. Lauren also helped produce a number of documentary films, including the award-winning Soundtrack for a Revolution and The Hollywood Complex, as well as one currently in production about civil rights icon James Meredith. Her writing has been featured on Newsweek, BillMoyers.com, TruthDig, Truthout, In These Times, and Extra! the newsletter of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. She currently lives in Kennebunk, Maine with her husband, two children, a dog, and several chickens.
The people of Flint on Wednesday carried their outrage and heartbreak from Michigan to Washington, D.C., where they described to a congressional panel how the officials charged with protecting their families were responsible for turning their homes into a toxic "ground zero."
The situation in Flint is "surreal. It's part 1984. It's part Enemy of the People," Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards told the U.S. House Oversight Committee. Edwards, who helped expose the lead-tainted water crisis, explained how state and federal agencies blatantly disregarded science and ultimately failed to protect the children in that community, and elsewhere.
In the first such congressional hearing on the Flint crisis, the committee has been charged with investigating the events leading up to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's late-January decision to issue an emergency order.
LeAnne Walters, a Flint mother whose lead-tainted water was the first tested by outside researchers, described her home as "ground zero" in the crisis. Walters said that the "city and the [Michigan Department of Environmental Quality] still told everyone the water was safe as the EPA sat by in silence," calling it the "ultimate betrayal of citizens."
"This is not a Flint problem or a rare anomaly," she added, "it is a national problem." According to her research, only 10 states accurately test water for lead.
Interspersed amid personal testimony from affected citizens, who lined the halls and packed an overflow room, state and federal officials were grilled about the heightened lead levels in the city's water supply--and when they knew it.
The Detroit Free Press, which is live-blogging the hearing, reports:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's emergency order last month took over water sampling, accusing the state of Michigan of delays and a lack of transparency.
But the state Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) -- which has taken the brunt of the blame for not requiring Flint to have corrosion control which could have kept lead from leaching from old service pipes -- has pointed a finger of blame back at EPA as well, saying the agency kept the state waiting months for a legal opinion about whether such corrosion control was required.
At one point, Edwards said that before multiple agencies turned their back on the damning evidence, the crisis "probably started innocently... and someone simply forgot to follow the law" by failing to add phosphates to the new water source, which caused the toxic corrosion.
Outside of the finger-pointing, much of the blame for the crisis and cover-up has been leveled at Republican Governor Rick Snyder and the state's Emergency Manager law. During the hearing, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) said he never liked the law because "it takes power away from the people in the community."
"Political philosophy matters, political choices have consequences and Flint is the most dramatic in our generation."
--Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.)
"This crisis," charged Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), "is the consequence of putting ideology ahead of human beings and their needs and their welfare."
"Political philosophy matters, political choices have consequences and Flint is the most dramatic in our generation," he continued.
Connolly said that he lays this crisis "at the doorstep of those who share that philosophy," adding that he wants "to see the governor at this table."
Neither Snyder nor Darnell Earley, who served as Flint emergency manager from September 2013 until January 2015, were present at the hearing on Wednesday--a fact that many seized on as an attempt to evade accountability.
The committee said Tuesday that they had voted to subpoena Earley--who notably resigned that same day from his position as emergency manager of the embattled Detroit Public School system--but said he had "refused service."
Committee member Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) declared at the start of Wednesday's hearing that he will direct U.S. Marshals to find Earley and "hunt him down" if necessary.
Updates on the hearing are being shared online under the hashtag #FlintWaterCrisis while ongoing deliberations can be watched live here.
Lauren McCauley
Lauren McCauley is a former senior editor for Common Dreams covering national and international politics and progressive news. She is now the Editor of Maine Morning Star. Lauren also helped produce a number of documentary films, including the award-winning Soundtrack for a Revolution and The Hollywood Complex, as well as one currently in production about civil rights icon James Meredith. Her writing has been featured on Newsweek, BillMoyers.com, TruthDig, Truthout, In These Times, and Extra! the newsletter of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. She currently lives in Kennebunk, Maine with her husband, two children, a dog, and several chickens.
The people of Flint on Wednesday carried their outrage and heartbreak from Michigan to Washington, D.C., where they described to a congressional panel how the officials charged with protecting their families were responsible for turning their homes into a toxic "ground zero."
The situation in Flint is "surreal. It's part 1984. It's part Enemy of the People," Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards told the U.S. House Oversight Committee. Edwards, who helped expose the lead-tainted water crisis, explained how state and federal agencies blatantly disregarded science and ultimately failed to protect the children in that community, and elsewhere.
In the first such congressional hearing on the Flint crisis, the committee has been charged with investigating the events leading up to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's late-January decision to issue an emergency order.
LeAnne Walters, a Flint mother whose lead-tainted water was the first tested by outside researchers, described her home as "ground zero" in the crisis. Walters said that the "city and the [Michigan Department of Environmental Quality] still told everyone the water was safe as the EPA sat by in silence," calling it the "ultimate betrayal of citizens."
"This is not a Flint problem or a rare anomaly," she added, "it is a national problem." According to her research, only 10 states accurately test water for lead.
Interspersed amid personal testimony from affected citizens, who lined the halls and packed an overflow room, state and federal officials were grilled about the heightened lead levels in the city's water supply--and when they knew it.
The Detroit Free Press, which is live-blogging the hearing, reports:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's emergency order last month took over water sampling, accusing the state of Michigan of delays and a lack of transparency.
But the state Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) -- which has taken the brunt of the blame for not requiring Flint to have corrosion control which could have kept lead from leaching from old service pipes -- has pointed a finger of blame back at EPA as well, saying the agency kept the state waiting months for a legal opinion about whether such corrosion control was required.
At one point, Edwards said that before multiple agencies turned their back on the damning evidence, the crisis "probably started innocently... and someone simply forgot to follow the law" by failing to add phosphates to the new water source, which caused the toxic corrosion.
Outside of the finger-pointing, much of the blame for the crisis and cover-up has been leveled at Republican Governor Rick Snyder and the state's Emergency Manager law. During the hearing, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) said he never liked the law because "it takes power away from the people in the community."
"Political philosophy matters, political choices have consequences and Flint is the most dramatic in our generation."
--Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.)
"This crisis," charged Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), "is the consequence of putting ideology ahead of human beings and their needs and their welfare."
"Political philosophy matters, political choices have consequences and Flint is the most dramatic in our generation," he continued.
Connolly said that he lays this crisis "at the doorstep of those who share that philosophy," adding that he wants "to see the governor at this table."
Neither Snyder nor Darnell Earley, who served as Flint emergency manager from September 2013 until January 2015, were present at the hearing on Wednesday--a fact that many seized on as an attempt to evade accountability.
The committee said Tuesday that they had voted to subpoena Earley--who notably resigned that same day from his position as emergency manager of the embattled Detroit Public School system--but said he had "refused service."
Committee member Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) declared at the start of Wednesday's hearing that he will direct U.S. Marshals to find Earley and "hunt him down" if necessary.
Updates on the hearing are being shared online under the hashtag #FlintWaterCrisis while ongoing deliberations can be watched live here.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.