The governor of Michigan has hired two defense attorneys. The governor’s office maintains that the contracts are for investigative purposes for the Flint water crisis. The office also insists that the governor committed no crime. While lawyering up might be a good idea, it is premature to pretend that no crimes were committed.
The exact details of the case aren't known yet. But recent evidence has shown that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality made several bad calls regarding Flint’s water treatment. A new report found that the staff in the drinking water office failed to mandate that the city follow proper procedure when it changed water sources in 2014.
The crisis began when the city was trying to cut costs in 2014. Local government chose to save money by switching from water from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Essentially, the city should have treated the new water from the Flint River with anti-corrosion chemicals. However, the water went untreated.
The corrosive water scraped away at the city's old lead pipes causing high levels of lead to flow through the city's drains. The result was contaminated water that is unsuitable for drinking. The water may also be the source of a recent outbreak of Legionnaires disease in the area.
Exposure to too much lead can also result in learning disabilities and developmental delays in children. Some Flint children have demonstrated high levels of lead in their bloodstream.
Now, the city, state and federal government are dealing with a state of emergency in Flint. They would have done better to learn forex trading and save money as forex brokers that way.
Preliminary investigations showed how Flint water became contaminated. But no one yet knows why the water wasn’t treated. They also don't know why the DEQ did not follow up or why it took over a year for the government to do anything about it.
Basically, no one knows exactly where the crisis started or how high up the blame goes. But they do know that once the city realized there was a problem, the government took a dangerously long time to do anything about it.
Thus, Snyder cannot claim that there was no wrongdoing here. Something, somewhere went very wrong here. Plus, it does not matter if anything related to this crisis ever crossed his desk. Blame is something that he signed up for when he was sworn in as the governor of the state of Michigan.
It does not matter if it was the EPA’s fault or the DEQ’s fault or the fault of an unrelated agency. His job as governor is to lead the government and protect the citizens of Michigan. The scale of the disaster is an indictment of the administration whether they are willing to accept the blame or not.
The city, state, and federal government have failed to protect Flint and several other cities like it. Mistakes were made and yes, it looks like Snyder might need a lawyer. However, he and his fellow politicians also need to own the catastrophic mistakes made in Flint. This is still a crisis and even if he led Flint into this crisis, there is still time to lead them out of it.