Well, Whaddya Know: Snyder Apologizes For Flint Lead Fiasco; DEQ Head Resigns
In the quiet week between Christmas and New Year's Day, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality chief Dan Wyant resigned, followed quickly by department spokesman Brad Wurfel. And Gov. Rick Snyder — finally — apologized for what happened in Flint.
For 18 months, Flint residents were exposed to lead-contaminated drinking water, after the city — while under state oversight and with MDEQ approval — began to draw its drinking water from the Flint River. Since the switch, an increasing percentage of Flint kids have elevated blood-lead levels. Lead poisoning causes irreversible behavioral and developmental difficulties.
So this apology, and these resignations, represent a sea change. But it's not enough. For months, Snyder and his MDEQ attempted to dodge the reality that state policy wrought in the City of Flint. As reports, based not only on data compiled or gathered by outside researchers and journalists but on the state's own information, began to explain what was happening, Snyder's spokespeople and MDEQ officials worked to deflect, discredit and deny.
Last week's flurry of belated mea culpas came on the heels of a report by the state's Auditor General that seems to confirm the state — not local government officials — made the decision to draw the city's drinking water from the Flint River, a report from a Snyder-appointed task force assigned to post-mortem the events of the last two years, and a crescendo of national media reports on the Flint water crisis.
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Ed. - Emphasis added
http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/columnists/nancy-kaffer/2016/01/05/snyder-flint-water/78068836/