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 Administrator Gina McCarthy wrote in a Sept. 26, 2015, email to EPA
staff that the Flint water issue was "really getting concerning" and
asked for a meeting to be scheduled to determine "where we are now
and what needs to be done by whom."
McCarthy wrote, "This situation has the opportunity to get very big
very quickly."
She asked officials in another email the same day for options on
federal intervention.
The EPA released 1,200 pages of redacted emails Wednesday on the
agency's response to the Flint water crisis.
An EPA spokeswoman did not comment on McCarthy's emails.
In response to concerns from her deputy about the EPA possibly
intervening, McCarthy wrote on Sept. 26, "There is danger if we do
not weigh in as well. Doesn't need to be formal but doing nothing is
fraught as well."
In January the EPA issued an emergency order requiring Michigan and
city of Flint to take immediate steps to protect residents after
determining that their response to the crisis had been "inadequate
to protect human health."
On Tuesday in a Washington Post editorial, McCarthy defended the
EPA's actions suggesting Michigan was "dismissive, misleading and
unresponsive" and federal officials were "provided with confusing,
incomplete and incorrect information."
"As a result, EPA staff members were unable to understand the scope
of the lead problem until more than a year after the switch to
untreated water," she wrote.
"While we were repeatedly and urgently telling the state to do so,
looking back, we missed opportunities late last summer to get our
concerns onto the public’s radar."
McCarthy's emails came after then EPA regional administrator Susan
Hedman sent an email to superiors that controversy surrounding lead
in Flint water was increasing after local doctors said lead levels
in children had doubled since the city switched to Flint River
water.
Hedman, who was criticized for her handling of the crisis, resigned
in February. She testified to a Congressional committee on Tuesday
and was chastised by House members for not moving fast enough to
address the crisis.
McCarthy, who is due to testify before the same committee on
Thursday, could face questions about the urgency at EPA to address
the issue.
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"While EPA did not cause the lead problem, in hindsight, we should
not have been so trusting of (Michigan) for so long when they
provided us with overly simplistic assurances of technical
compliance rather than substantive responses to our growing
concerns," her written testimony released Wednesday said. "I’m
personally committed to doing everything possible to make sure a
crisis like this never happens again."
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, who has apologized for the state's
poor handling of the crisis, is also due to testify Thursday.
Snyder in written testimony released late on Wednesday said
"inefficient, ineffective, and unaccountable bureaucrats at the EPA
allowed this disaster to continue unnecessarily." He called on
McCarthy for the EPA to accept its share of the blame.
McCarthy wrote in a Sept. 27 email that the "state needs to step up
here. Wonder if it isn't the best solution to ask the state to
support the shift back to Detroit water in the short term."
The state helped Flint switch back to Detroit water in October. The
same month the EPA established a task force to provide technical
advice to help Flint's water switch. EPA also announced an audit of
Michigan's environmental agency in November.
Under the direction of a state-appointed emergency manager, Flint, a
working class mostly African-American city of 100,000 north of
Detroit, switched water supplies to the Flint River in 2014, to save
money.
The more corrosive river water, which was not treated, caused more
lead to leach from the city's aging water pipes than the Detroit
water the city had tapped previously, causing a public health threat
marked by high lead levels in blood samples taken from children.
Lead is a toxic agent that can damage the nervous system.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Ben Klayman and Bernard
Orr)
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