In 1991, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a regulation to control the levels of lead and copper in American drinking water. This regulation, which is known as the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), required that, by January 1, 1997, “public water systems serving more than 50,000 people… survey their own corrosion control systems and replace their pipelines with state-approved corrosion control.” Such corrosion controls, according to the EPA, are critically important, as acidic water, if left untreated, will invariably eat away at a city’s water delivery infrastructure, which very well could contain older pipes made of lead and other toxic materials… Seems pretty straightforward, right?

[This is probably a good time to remind everyone that the Republicans want to destroy the EPA, the entity charged with ensuring, among other things, that we have safe drinking water in the United States.]

Well, as you might expect, the people of Flint, when they began to discover that their children were suffering from lead poisoning, asked state officials if such corrosion controls were put in place when it was decided by their Governor-appointed Emergency Manager that, in order to save money, they would begin sourcing their municipal water from the Flint River. [This, according to the administration, would just be a stop gap measure until such time that a new pipeline from Lake Huron could be completed.] In response, the people of Flint were told that, yes, such efforts had been taken. In fact, as recent as this past October 2nd, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) Director Dan Wyant told the people of Flint the following. “Know that when the city switched from Detroit sewer and water, that the city utilized corrosion controls,” he said.

We know now, of course, that this was bullshit. No comprehensive corrosion control program had been put in place, in violation of EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule, and the children of Flint were being poisoned by the water coming into their homes and schools as a result. Wyant admitted as much on December 16, when al Jazeera correspondent Lori Jane Gliha asked him, “When you said corrosion control was in place in Flint, was that true?” To his credit, he responded truthfully. “No,” he said.

Wyant, of course, would eventually loose his job at the MDEQ, as would MDEQ spokesperson Brad Wurfel, who, like Wyant, had told the people of Flint not to worry about the water that they were drinking. It was Wurzel, as you might recall, who announced this past July, “Anyone who is concerned about lead in the drinking water in Flint can relax.” Wurzel, it’s worth noting, made this claim a full year after the people of Flint first started coming forward, saying that the water was making them ill.

While it’s still unclear when the administration knew definitively that the people of Flint were being poisoned by their drinking water, we know for certain that, when Wurzel told the people of Flint to “relax,” he had already seen the leaked EPA report showing extremely high lead levels in the water. So, when Wurfel told the people of Flint to go ahead and keep drinking the water in July, and when Snyder this past December said that it was “premature to come to conclusions” on the safety of Flint’s drinking water, as “a lot of lead issues can happen because of lead-based paint in someone’s home,” we can say with some certainty that they were lying. They knew that lead was in the water, and they knew that it was the water, and not lead paint, that was cause of lead poisoning in Flint’s children. In spite of this, though, they continued to tell people that the water was safe, and that the cases of lead poisoning could be the result of other factors.

And, while we haven’t seen any of the Governor’s emails from this time period, as Michigan is one of only two states where such documents cannot be acquired by way of Freedom of Information Act, we know that a discussion was taking place in Lansing as to how to respond to growing evidence of this public health emergency. For instance, we now know that, on July 22, a full six months before the administration acknowledged that there was a problem, the Governor’s Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore sent out an email saying that, in his opinion, they were “blowing off” the legitimate concerns of the people in Flint. “I’m frustrated by the water issue in Flint,” Muchmore wrote in an email exchange. “I really don’t think people are getting the benefit of the doubt. Now they are concerned and rightfully so about the lead level studies they are receiving from the (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) samples… These folks are scared and worried about the health impacts and they are basically getting blown off by us (as a state we’re just not sympathizing with their plight).” But apparently a decision was made to continue the big lie that everything was OK. [The state did finally apply corrosion controls in late July, but they still maintained that things were fine.]

And, not only does it look as though the administration lied to the people of Flint about how bad the situation was. It also appears that reports may have been falsified in order to keep the federal government from taking action. Here, with more on that, is a clip from CNN.

Michigan officials may have altered sample data to lower the city of Flint’s water lead-level reports, according to official documents and a researcher who conducted extensive tests there over the last six months.

Documents and emails show discrepancies between two reports detailing the toxicity of lead samples collected by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the city of Flint between January and June 2015, Professor Marc Edwards from Virginia Tech University said.

Edwards is the lead researcher for the Flint Water Study, a research group that has conducted numerous tests on Flint’s system and was the first to publicly identify high levels of lead in the water.

The documents and emails were released by researchers from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University through a Freedom of Information Act request and viewed by CNN.

According to Edwards, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the city of Flint collected 71 lead level samples from homes when they were required to collect 100. The final report from the Department of Environmental Quality however, only accounted for 69 of those 71 samples.

Edwards said those two discarded samples were “high-lead” and would have lifted the “action level” above 15 parts per billion. The public must be alerted and additional action must be taken if lead concentrations exceed an “action level” of 15 parts per billion in drinking water, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s website…

As for just how toxic the drinking water in Flint was when the people were being told to “relax,” the following graphic comes from today’s Washington Post.

[The sample in the bottom right, which shows 13,000 parts per billion, was taken from the home of Lee Anne Walters, who I interviewed last weekend on The Saturday Six Pack.]

Apparently, behind the scenes, there was a battle taking place between the Snyder administration and the EPA, which had become aware of how serious the issue in Flint was this past April. According to a new report in the Detroit News, the EPA was pushing for the Snyder administration to put corrosion control in place, and the Snyder administration was pushing back.

…The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s top Midwest official said her department knew as early as April about the lack of corrosion controls in Flint’s water supply — a situation that likely put residents at risk for lead contamination — but said her hands were tied in bringing the information to the public.

Starting with inquiries made in February, the federal agency battled Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality behind the scenes for at least six months over whether Flint needed to use chemical treatments to keep lead lines and plumbing connections from leaching into drinking water. The EPA did not publicize its concern that Flint residents’ health was jeopardized by the state’s insistence that such controls were not required by law.

Instead of moving quickly to verify the concerns or take preventative measures, federal officials opted to prod the DEQ to act, EPA Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman told The Detroit News this week. Hedman said she sought a legal opinion on whether the EPA could force action, but it wasn’t completed until November.

The state didn’t agree to apply corrosion controls until late July and didn’t publicly concede until October that it erroneously applied the federal Lead and Copper Rule overseeing water quality.

An EPA water expert, Miguel Del Toral, identified potential problems with Flint’s drinking water in February, confirmed the suspicions in April and summarized the looming problem in a June internal memo. The state decided in October to change Flint’s drinking water source from the corrosive Flint River back to the Detroit water system…

Not only did the MDEQ continue to fight against the implementation, but Brad Wurzel came out publicly in September dismissing Del Toral as a “rogue employee” who shouldn’t be listened to.

Oh, and here’s the best part… How much would it have cost the state to implement corrosion control procedures in Flint? We’re being told now that the necessary chemicals would have only cost about $100 a day. As that’s the case, one wonders why they fought so hard. Was it because they felt that doing so would be an admission of guilt, leaving them open to costly law suits? Thats my guess, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see what comes of the federal investigation.

But wait, it gets better. According to a report in the Flint Journal yesterday, not only did the Snyder administration tell people to keep drinking the water when they knew that it was toxic, but they also sat on evidence for 15 months that the water from the Flint River could be linked a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease. “Public health officials identified the Flint River as a potential source of a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease some 15 months ago,” they reported yesterday, “but people using the water were never told until this week, documents obtained by The Flint Journal-MLive show.”

Thankfully, as we discussed earlier, all of this has finally become national news. Not only was it the top story on Reddit today, but presidential candidate Bernie Sanders just joined the chorus of those calling for Governor Snyder to step down. “There are no excuses,” said Senator Sanders on his site this evening. “The governor long ago knew about the lead in Flint’s water. He did nothing. As a result, hundreds of children were poisoned. Thousands may have been exposed to potential brain damage from lead. Gov. Snyder should resign.”

I know there are some who see comments like this one made by Sanders as meaningless. ‘They should be focusing on the people of Flint,’ some say, ‘and not attempting to use this crisis as an opportunity to score points politically and drive Snyder from office.’ [A friend recently referred to these attacks on Snyder as “liberal bloodsport”.] While I understand the sentiment, I disagree. First, I think it’s possible to both demand accountability and focus on getting the people of Flint the resources that they need. And, second, I don’t believe our Governor started taking this seriously until people outside of Michigan started calling for his arrest. This had been going on for well over a year, with no end in sight. The people of Flint would show up to public meetings with plastic jugs full of toxic water, waiving their children’s lead tests, and nothing would change. Once Rachel Maddow and others began to suggest that this went all the way to the Governor’s office, though, and started to demand that Snyder and other members of his administration be deposed, we started to see action… So I say that we keep it up.

As for where things stand today, it was just reported that President Obama has agreed to make federal funds available, as per last week’s request by Governor Snyder, which means that “the federal government will pick up 75% of the cost of bottled water, filters, cartridges and other supplies, up to $5 million.” [One this $5 million is exhausted, Congress can then approve additional funding.] So, finally, things are beginning to move in a positive direction.

One more thing… If you’re interested in how all of this came to pass, I’d suggest reading my July 2014 interview with Flint attorney Alec Gibbs about the state takeover of Flint, why it happened, and the damage that, by that point, was already underway. It really puts all of this recent water crisis in perspective, I think.

Oh, and speaking of the Snyder-appointed Emergency Manger overseeing Flint, it would app read that our Governor, now that he’s completely fucked the city for at least a generation, is ready to return power to the democratically elected leaders of Flint.

One last thing. If you’re off from work or school tomorrow, there’s going to be an “Arrest Governor Snyder” rally and march in Ann Arbor. Things are apparently going to get started at 4:00 in front of the University of Michigan’s Rackham Building [915 East Washington Street]. Folks will then start marching at 4:30 to Snyder’s new home on Main Street… And, the following day, there will be a rally in Lansing prior to the Governors Sate of the State address.

[above: I mentioned earlier that the Flint water crisis was the number one story being discussed on Reddit today. Well, this is the image that accompanied the post. The caption read as follows: “A pastor holds up a bottle of Flint water during protests outside of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s office Thursday. The city’s been sending notices for past-due water bills even though the water has been poisoned with lead.”]