WASHINGTON D.C. (WKZO-AM) — The Flint water crisis has already cost Dan Wyant, the former director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and his spokesman, Brad Wurfel, their jobs. Now, Susan Hedman, the Administrator for Midwest Region Five of the U.S. EPA, has turned in her resignation.
It came on the same day that U.S. EPA officials met with members of Congressman Fred Upton’s House Oversight Committee. That same committee plans to call Gov. Rick Snyder to a hearing on Feb. 3rd.
Kalamazoo and Battle Creek residents who followed the clean-up of the Kalamazoo River after the Enbridge oil spill in 2010 may remember Hedman and Wurfel’s participation in those efforts.
The Detroit News reported last week that Hedman and her staff realized Flint had a problem with lead contamination last April. But, instead of notifying the public or intervening, she urged Michigan officials to address the problem instead.
As Hedman was signing her resignation, the EPA was issuing a letter notifying Snyder that Flint was in violation of federal drinking water rules.
In the letter, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the EPA “is deeply concerned by continuing delays and lack of transparency and has determined that the actions required by the order … are essential to ensuring the safe operation of Flint’s drinking water system and the protection of public health.”
This is something else that Flint officials said should’ve happened months ago.
Flint may have some funding coming for those improvements. In his address to the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Thursday, President Obama announced he would be releasing $80 million for the State of Michigan that was approved by Congress last December as part of a bipartisan budget agreement.
“I am grateful that the President has been personally engaged in helping Flint recover from this catastrophe and supportive of our request for federal assistance,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, said. “I am pleased that the Administration is quickly releasing funds approved by Congress to help the State of Michigan improve its water infrastructure.”
– John McNeill
