On Thursday, Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan blamed the federal officials and Environmental Protection Agency for the Flint water-contamination problems. Meanwhile, the head of the federal EPA also faulted other state officials, including Gov. Snyder.
12 News reported that Gov. Snyder called the US EPA, which provides monitoring and control of lead levels in drinking water, "dumb and dangerous". The governor contends that other cities across the country will end up in similar crisis unless the federal regulations change.
The Republican governor repeatedly apologized for his role in the Flint crisis at the congressional hearing, saying "not a day or night goes by" that the Flint water crisis doesn't weigh on his mind.
Protesters called for the arrest of Gov. Snyder on Monday, Dayton Daily News reported. They claimed that the governor is complicit in the cases of lead poisoning since he did not act immediately when he knew there was a problem.
The EPA directives include that a water system should take action to diminish contamination when more than 10 percent of samples show lead levels at higher than 15 parts per billion. In mid-2015, Virginia Tech researchers conducted a test of tap water samples from almost 300 Flint households. The results showed that 15 percent were higher than the EPA action level for the crucial first draw after the water has sat in pipes while more than a third had levels that were higher than 5 ppb.
Gina McCarthy, an EPA administrator blamed state officials, saying that the impoverished city was under state management when Flint's water supply was switched in April 2014 to save money in the predominantly African-American city.
According to Chicago Tribune, about 8,000 children under the age of 6 were potentially exposed to lead and increased lead levels have been detected in at least 104 adults and 221 children in flint. Officials from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that drinking water should contain no lead since it has toxin which accumulates in the body and can particularly affect the development of a child's brain.
Representative Elijah Cummings also called on Gov. Snyder, who has three recall petition circulation against him, to resign.
