Posted on 01/23/2016 7:38:22 AM PST by Kaslin
You may recall that reporters finally caught up with EPA chief Gina McCarthy in DC the other day and asked her about the situation in Flint, Michigan and the dismal (if not criminal) response of her agency. She informed everyone that, “we did our job.” That’s an interesting perspective, particularly in light of the fact that she just accepted the resignation of the Region 5 administrator who sat on reports of toxic water in Flint for months without telling anyone. (The Hill)
The regional Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief responsible for Michigan is resigning amid charges that she did not do enough to prevent the Flint, Mich., drinking water crisis.
Susan Hedman, regional administrator for the EPA's Chicago-based region 5, submitted her resignation Thursday, effective Feb. 1, the EPA said.
"EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has accepted given Susan's strong interest in ensuring that EPA region 5's focus remains solely on the restoration of Flint's drinking water," an EPA spokeswoman said late Thursday.
Hedman told the Detroit News last week that her office knew in April 2015 that Flint's action to switch its water supply could cause increased pipe corrosion and spiked lead levels.
The first question which should come to everyone’s minds is, why was this woman allowed to just resign? Why wasn’t she fired? I understand that sounds like a silly question since nobody at the EPA has been held accountable for anything since McCarthy has been in charge, but surely this is different. It’s true that somebody made the decision to switch the city’s water supply from Detroit to the Flint River and the damage was accelerated by their failure to anticipate the water treatment required to prevent the pipes from rotting out. Those involved with that decision need to be held accountable. But the EPA knew (or strongly suspected) that the people of Flint were drinking what is essentially toxic waste for six months and they said nothing. They suppressed a report which could have gotten safety protocols in motion while they argued internally over petty bureaucratic concerns and allowed the citizens to continue ingesting lead for months on end.
What kind of a human being does that? How was there not a single person inside that EPA regional office who thought to pick up the phone, call a newspaper and tell them that tens of thousands of people might very well be on the path to lead poisoning? Any reporter could go down to Walmart and pick up a kit capable of testing the lead levels in drinking water for under twenty bucks. This is outrageous, and I say that as somebody who has to watch government malfeasance on a daily basis for a living. And yet nobody seems to even be suggesting that Gina McCarthy be held accountable for this.
The EPA is been a hotbed of incompetence, corruption, partisanship, waste and fraud for years now and not a single person is made to stand against the wheel. If people want to hold Governor Rick Snyder accountable for this fiasco, fine. It happened on his watch. But Gina McCarthy’s neck needs to be stretched out on the block right next to his.
She was white.
And not a lesbian.
If the EPA “did their job” in Flint, why did their regional administrator just resign?
To spend more time with her family?
Is she another of Obama’s great appointees?
In liberal government, infrastructure planning is always supplanted by social planning.
It’s quite clear that the EPA is a political tool for social justice. Screw the loyal libtards. Just give them another speech and a social program to keep the survivors voting your way.
Thanks for the post.
(ping)
DISMANTLE/DEFUND/DOWNSIZE EPA
Sooooo...
How much did the city spend over the last 50 years maintaining and upgrading its water system?
And who was in charge?
Not a dyke? Boy, she sure looks like one.
Her bio states she’s married to a wholesale floral salesman.
(snicker..!)
It is time to Abolish the EPA and put them in Jail!!!
Resigning is the way that government hacks avoid criminal investigations and get to live happily with us paying for their retirement and health care.
Did their job on Flint just like they did their job on the Animas Fiver.
From WSJ editorial a few days back.
“If there were ever a moment for federal action, this would seem to be it. MDEQ and the EPA were chatting about Flint’s system as early as February. MDEQ said it wanted to test the water more before deciding on corrosion controls, though it isn’t clear that federal law allows this. In a May email to the EPA, a MDEQ staffer said that requiring a corrosion study “will be of little to no value†because, hey, we’re heading to Lake Huron any day now. EPA did not intervene.
EPA Region 5 water expert Miguel Del Toral worked up an internal memo in June flagging the lack of corrosion control as “a major concern†for public health. He further noted that Flint’s testing might be producing misleading results, as the city told residents to flush toilets before collecting a sample, which can wash away lead. If contaminated water had flowed somewhere inhabited by a manatee, the feds would have sped to Michigan.
But here’s how the region’s top EPA official, political appointee Susan Hedman, responded in a July 1 email to Flint’s Mayor Dayne Walling, after Mr. Del Toral’s memo was leaked: “When the report has been revised and fully vetted by EPA management, the findings and recommendations will be shared with the City and MDEQ and MDEQ will be responsible for following up with the City.†She also noted over email that it’s “a preliminary draft†and it’d be “premature to draw any conclusions.†The EPA did not notify the public. This report rotted and wasn’t released for months while tawny, infected water ran from faucets across Flint.
‘
http://www.wsj.com/articles/through-hell-and-flint-water-1453336838
See: Lois Lerner
Gina McCarthy’s level of corruption is criminal & should be prosecuted. Never happen. Corruption is rewarded by Democrats in DC.
Probably the same folks that released the "orange river" of toxins of mine waste out west, but hey, they're dems and "the best and brightest" - just ask them.
Too busy fining citizens for backyard ponds?
She did her job.
She got the issue of “lead” into the public discussion it’s called “heightened public awareness”.
She left to make it appear as if she screwed up.
The idea is to use the issue of lead in paint to condemn low income housing and relocate the inner city trash to the suburbs.
Going to leave a whole lot of condemned building in the inner cities that will have to be cleaned up or torn down and some developer will be able to pick up real estate for development on the cheap.
Wonder who that developer could be?
“Doing their job” only means prostrating themselves before the alter of Obama. Occasionally one of them needs to be sacrificed for the good of the lord.
Hmmn. Interesting theory.
Engineering observation is that CITY and LOCAL water lines are NOT been lead-soldered since the 1920’s. The house lines “might be” built with lead solder in the joints for a few years later, but the problem - IF it exists as widely assumed at all! - is in the individual houses themselves.
But the local (democrat, protected races and genders all) politicians are going to be promoted and celebrated. And make out like bandits literally .. since the government money is NOT going to go to a solution, but to the bureaucrats and contractors and academic suckers “promising” solutions and promoting “advertisements against the (conveniently republican) governor!
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