Gina McCarthy Testimony - Flint Water Crisis, Part 3 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00morning Mr chairman uh ranking member
2. 0:01Cummings distinguished members of the
3. 0:03committee I want to thank you for the
4. 0:05opportunity to testify about epa's
5. 0:07response to the drinking water crisis in
6. 0:10Flint Michigan I want to start by saying
7. 0:12that what happened in Flint should never
8. 0:15have happened and can never be allowed
9. 0:17to happen again the crisis that we are
10. 0:20seeing is a result of a state appointed
11. 0:23emergency manager deciding that that
12. 0:25City would stop purchasing treated water
13. 0:28that had that it had been successfully
14. 0:30relying on for 50 years and instead
15. 0:34switched to an untreated source for the
16. 0:37simple reason that they wanted to save
17. 0:39money the state of Michigan approved
18. 0:42that decision without requiring
19. 0:44corrosion control treatment without
20. 0:47corrosion control lead leeched from the
21. 0:50pipes and fittings and fixtures in homes
22. 0:52and businesses and industries and it
23. 0:55leeched into the drinking water these
24. 0:58decisions are what resulted in Flint
25. 1:00residents being exposed to Dangerously
26. 1:03high levels of
27. 1:04lead now under the Safe Water the Safe
28. 1:07Drinking Water Act Congress gives States
29. 1:10the primary responsibility to enforce
30. 1:13drinking water rules for the Nations
31. 1:15approximately
32. 1:17152,000 water systems but EPA has
33. 1:21oversight Authority typically EPA has
34. 1:25strong relationships with our states and
35. 1:27we work with them under this act but
36. 1:30looking back on Flint from day one the
37. 1:33state provided our regional office with
38. 1:36confusing incomplete and absolutely
39. 1:40incorrect information their interactions
40. 1:43with us were intangent misleading and
41. 1:46contentious and as a result EPA staff
42. 1:49had insufficient information to
43. 1:52understand the potential scope of the
44. 1:54lead problem until more than a year
45. 1:57after that water supply was switched
46. 2:00while EPA did not cause the lead problem
47. 2:03in hindsight we should not have been so
48. 2:06trusting of the state for so long when
49. 2:09they provided us with overly simplistic
50. 2:12assurances of technical compliance
51. 2:14rather than substantive responses to our
52. 2:18increasingly growing
53. 2:20concerns although EPA Regional staff
54. 2:24repeatedly asked the Michigan Department
55. 2:26of Environmental Quality to address the
56. 2:29lack of corrosion control we missed the
57. 2:32opportunity late summer to quickly get
58. 2:35epa's concerns on the radar screen that
59. 2:39I
60. 2:40regret since October EPA has been
61. 2:43providing technical advice to the city
62. 2:45additionally as part of the federal
63. 2:47response led by the Department of Health
64. 2:49and Human Services an EPA response team
65. 2:52of scientists water quality experts
66. 2:55Community involvement coordinators and
67. 2:57support staff have been on the the
68. 2:59ground every day since late
69. 3:02July the EPA team has visited hundreds
70. 3:06of homes and collected thousands of
71. 3:08samples to assess the city's water
72. 3:10system and we're encouraged by these
73. 3:12test results but our enhanced efforts
74. 3:15with Flint will not cease until the
75. 3:18system is fully back on track now we've
76. 3:21also been engaging Flint residents
77. 3:24visiting places of worship schools
78. 3:25libraries community centers and Senior
79. 3:28Living Facilities to hear their concerns
80. 3:30and share information I have also taken
81. 3:33several concrete steps at the agency to
82. 3:36address some of the systemic issues
83. 3:38raised during the
84. 3:40crisis I directed a review of mdq and
85. 3:44its ability to implement the Safe
86. 3:45Drinking Water Act for the very reasons
87. 3:48that the governor has also so clearly
88. 3:51articulated I called on epa's Inspector
89. 3:54General to investigate epa's response to
90. 3:56the Flint crisis no we didn't cause it
91. 4:00but could we have acted sooner to
92. 4:02correct the
93. 4:03situation I issued an EPA wide elevation
94. 4:06memo encouraging staff to raise issues
95. 4:08of concern to manages and for manages to
96. 4:11be welcoming of Staff concerns and
97. 4:13questions too much back and forth went
98. 4:16between EPA and the state when it should
99. 4:20have gone up so that we could have
100. 4:22raised the red flag earlier I also
101. 4:25recently sent letters to every governor
102. 4:27and every state environmental and health
103. 4:29commissioner in the the country asking
104. 4:30them to join EPA and taking action to
105. 4:34strengthen our safe drinking water
106. 4:36programs to ensure that they're looking
107. 4:39and working with their own
108. 4:41communities additionally we're actively
109. 4:44working on revisions to the lead and
110. 4:46copper rule the lead and copper rule was
111. 4:49revised under the prior Administration
112. 4:52to streamline the monitoring and
113. 4:54Reporting requirements we know that it
114. 4:57needs to be strengthened while the
115. 5:00Contours of this situation are unique
116. 5:02the underlying circumstances that allow
117. 5:05to it it to happen are really
118. 5:07not as a country we have a systemic
119. 5:10problem of
120. 5:28underinvestigated
121. 5:30that's what Stacks the deck against a
122. 5:32city like Flint that's what creates an
123. 5:35environment where a crisis like this can
124. 5:37happen in many areas across our country
125. 5:40water infrastructure is Aging in in
126. 5:44inated and several uh communities are
127. 5:48severely underfunded particularly low
128. 5:52interest lowi income communities which
129. 5:55may have the most difficulty securing
130. 5:57funds through rate incre increases on
131. 6:00municipal bonds this threatens CI
132. 6:02citizens access to Safe Drinking Water
133. 6:05and we need to start having a serious
134. 6:07conversation with Congress and others
135. 6:10about how we advance the Technologies
136. 6:12and Investments necessary to keep
137. 6:14delivering clean water to American
138. 6:17families I'm personally committed to
139. 6:20doing everything possible to make sure a
140. 6:22crisis like this never
141. 6:25happens going to having been to Flint
142. 6:28having met with the family having met
143. 6:30with faith leaders having looked at
144. 6:31where we're Distributing Waters having
145. 6:34worked hard to make sure that
146. 6:35communities have the information that
147. 6:37they need to to stay safe you cannot do
148. 6:40anything but be personally committed but
149. 6:43we know that no one portion of
150. 6:45government can do it alone none of us
151. 6:48can do it alone we need the cooperation
152. 6:49of all of our colleagues at every level
153. 6:52of government and every branch of
154. 6:54government and Beyond thank you I look
155. 6:56forward to answering your questions