Above Photo: CARLOS OSORIO/ASSOCIATED PRESS. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) faces ongoing fallout after thousands of local children in Flint were exposed to dangerous levels of lead.
Note: According to the World Health Organization, “Young children are particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of lead and can suffer profound and permanent adverse health effects, particularly affecting the development of the brain and nervous system.” NBC reports: “The effects of the lead poisoning — which harms mental and physical development — could reverberate for years. ‘In five years, these kids are going to have problems with special education. They’re going to have cognition problems,’ Pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha said. “Seven to 10 years, they’re going to have behavioral problems.” Flint has a population of 100,000 people and is 56 percent black. At the time it was governed by a city manager appointed by the Governor Snyder who replaced the elected mayor. The switch to the Flint water supply was a budget cutting measure. Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards told NBC News that for as little as $100 a day, the city could have added phosphates to the water to correct much of the problem but failed to do so.
High lead levels in Flint’s water could have harmed thousands of city kids.
Flint, MI – Days after Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) apologized for toxic tap water in the city of Flint and accepted the resignations of multiple state officials, the U.S. Justice Department said it has opened an investigation into what went wrong.
“In an effort to address the concerns of Flint residents, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District is working closely with the EPA on the investigation into the contamination of the city of Flint’s water supply,” Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, told HuffPost on Tuesday.
The Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which helped expose the poisoning of Flint’s water, was the first to report the Justice Department investigation, highlighting it as an “unusual step.”
Last week, a task force appointed by Snyder squarely blamed the high lead levels in Flint’s water on the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The agency failed to address the water’s corrosiveness after switching the city’s water source to the Flint River as a cost-saving measure in 2014. At the time, Flint was under the authority of an emergency manager appointed by the state of Michigan.
The new water absorbed lead from Flint’s aging pipes, and researchers discovered a corresponding increase of lead levels in the bloodstreams of local children. The MDEQ continued to deny a lead poisoning problem even as evidence mounted last year.
“I want the Flint community to know how very sorry I am that this has happened,” Snyder said in a statement last week. In that statement, the governor also announced the resignation of MDEQ director Dan Wyant. Flint switched back to Detroit’s water supply in October after high blood lead levels came to light.
Snyder spokeswoman Laura Biehl said Tuesday that the governor’s office would cooperate with the Justice Department.
“We will cooperate fully with any requests from the U.S. Attorney’s Office as it looks into Flint’s water challenges,” Biehl said, noting that the Snyder-appointed task force is still reviewing the water crisis.
Curt Guyette, an investigative reporter with the Michigan ACLU, welcomed the news of the DOJ’s investigation, saying “it means that we’re not gonna have to only rely on a panel appointed by Gov. Snyder to find out what really happened and if laws were violated.”
The Environmental Protection Agency opened an investigation into Flint’s water situation in November.
Lead is a deadly neurotoxin, and exposure is especially dangerous for children, who may experience stunted growth, behavioral problems and permanently decreased IQs.