President Obama signed an emergency declaration allocating up to $5 million in federal funds to be used to help manage the ongoing drinking water lead contamination issues in Flint, Michigan. In addition, the White House announced that Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Nicole Lurie, would be coordinating federal responses for providing the resources Flint needs to deal with its water problems. In addition to HHS, federal agencies involved in the Flint response efforts include the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Agriculture.
So far, EPA has been at the forefront of the federal response, establishing the Flint Safe Drinking Water Task Force. The task force was established to provide “technical expertise through regular dialogue with designated officials from Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the City of Flint” and “will assist with developing and implementing a plan to secure water quality, including measures to optimize corrosion control.” However, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy accepted the resignation of the EPA Region 5 Deputy Regional Administrator, who was leading the task force, on January 21. At the same time, Administrator McCarthy announced that EPA was going to exercise its emergency powers in accordance with section 1431 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
Under SDWA section 1431, the EPA Administrator has broad authority for taking actions when there is an “imminent and substantial endangerment” to public health from a contaminant in a public water system and is authorized when actions of state and local authorities are inadequate. The section 1431 emergency declaration functionally changes the legal relationship between EPA and state and local authorities, giving EPA the authority to issue direct orders, with non-compliance resulting in administrative penalties and fines under the SDWA.
At the state level, the Governor’s office and Department of Environmental Quality are providing updates and other information through the Taking Action on Flint Water webpage. And on January 22, the Michigan House unanimously approved $28 million in supplemental spending requested by the governor to address Flint’s water contamination. The state senate approved the legislation on January 28.
As state and federal responses and inquiries continue in Flint, interest from local, national and even international media as well as consumers and advocates continue. Every utility should be ready to answer questions about its lead service line inventory and the control of lead in drinking water.