Congress Just Ripped Flint Officials. It Wasn’t Pretty.

The testimonies were “sickening,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings.

Darnell Earley, Flint's former state-appointed emergency managerAndrew Harnik/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


On Thursday, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is scheduled to testify in a much-anticipated hearing before a congressional committee investigating the contamination crisis in Flint. If Tuesday’s tense hearing—in which the committee grilled other key local, state, and federal officials—was any indication, he’d better prep a good defense.

The opening testimonies were an exercise in deflection—so much so that the committee’s top-ranking Democrat, Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, called it “sickening.” Former Environmental Protection Agency official Susan Hedman, who was in charge of the agency’s Midwest region until she resigned in January, went so far as to say that this EPA had “nothing at all to do” with Flint’s water contamination crisis. Darnell Earley, the state-appointed manager who oversaw the city’s disastrous switch to the Flint River water, said, “I believe that I have been unjustly persecuted, vilified, and smeared—both personally and professionally—by the media, local, state, and federal officials.”

In response to the testimonies, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said, “I think this hearing is going to be known as the great finger-pointing hearing.”

Here are key three key moments:

Virginia Tech professor: “Apparently being a government agency means never having to say you are sorry.” In his opening testimony, Mark Edwards, a Virginia Tech professor who was largely responsible for exposing the contaminated water, came down hard on the EPA for not immediately warning Flint residents after an agency official found high levels of lead in the water in the spring of 2015. The agency, he said, “covered up evidence of their unethical actions by authoring false scientific reports” and never apologized for the ensuing crisis.

Rep. Cummings on the tainted water: “A five-year-old could figure that out!” Cummings grew frustrated with Earley, who said the Flint River water was safe even after a General Motors plant reported that the water was corroding its car parts. Earley maintained he was acting on guidance from the state’s Department of Environmental Quality. “I’m not a water treatment expert,” he said.

“You don’t have a to be a water treatment expert!” Cummings retorted. “A five-year-old could figure that out!”

Rep. Jason Chaffetz to the EPA: “You screwed up, and you ruined people’s lives.” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the committee chairman, laid into former EPA administrator Hedman for not quickly taking responsibility for the crisis. He wasn’t the only one. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) said, “There’s a special place in hell for actions like this.” Later, Cummings added, “I’m glad you resigned.”

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate