“MDEQ caused this crisis to happen,” the panel said. Once problems with the new water surfaced, the agency was “dismissive and unresponsive” to public concerns, the experts wrote. Then, the state agency was slow to require Flint to add the chemicals, even after the EPA advised them to do so. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that Flint was using them when it in fact was not. The agency initially told the city it did not need to add anti-corrosion chemicals when it switched water sources and then reported to the U.S.

The “primary responsibility for the Flint water crisis,” according to the five-person task force, rests with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), the chief regulator for local drinking water systems. Nineteen states allow the state to intervene in the finances of distressed cities, although Michigan allows for some of the most aggressive state actions. But Snyder’s task force concluded that state-appointed emergency managers are ill-equipped to deal with nonfinancial matters. ĭuring Snyder’s tenure, the Republican-led legislature gave the state the power to put governor-appointed emergency managers in control of financially troubled local governments. Because of the lingering damage to the pipes, lead is still getting into the water even though Flint switched back to Detroit water in October 2015. But because Flint didn't add anti-corrosive chemicals to the water - as required by the federal government - the new water source corroded the pipes connecting buildings to water mains. And even once problems surfaced, the state’s treasury department effectively blocked Flint from returning to its original water source because of cost concerns.Īn emergency manager switched the source of Flint's drinking water in April 2014 from Detroit’s Lake Huron to the Flint River. State government also bears the responsibility, the task force said, because it was a Snyder-appointed emergency manager, not local officials, who decided to switch Flint’s water supply - the move that triggered the crisis. Flint switched its water source back two weeks later. The next day, the Detroit Free Press ran a story supporting the claims that Flint's water was contaminated with lead. But the governor himself said he first learned that his agencies had been wrong about the issue of lead in Flint's water after Sept.