Posted on 03/18/2016 8:29:44 AM PDT by MichCapCon
After receiving a great deal of media attention, Gov. Rick Snyder's office has released 21,730 pages of documents related to the Flint water issue, many of them emails, at no charge. But media outlets that want to examine documents from the city of Flint or its water department should be prepared to pay up.
The Flint water crisis has sparked a national debate on municipal water treatment and triggered deep concerns among residents about their own health and their children’s. With all that in play, the clear demand and need for transparency has trumped the usual devices that government officials use to frustrate requests for documents under open records laws.
Demanding sky-high fees for certain records searches is one technique; officials know that placing price tag high enough is equivalent to making information unattainable.
The city of Flint provides an example. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy submitted a request under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act for emails from about 120 water and utility department employees in which the word “lead” appeared, covering the period from January 2014 to January 2015.
Flint’s responded by saying there was a $172,203 price tag for the public records, based on an assertion that the computer search would take 4,917 hours to complete.
“The city is not in a financial position to waive the cost of staff time required to assemble responses to FOIAs,” said David B. Roth, assistant city attorney, in a letter explaining the charge.
Roth acknowledged the high cost to complete the FOIA request, which he attributed to the broad nature of the Mackinac Center's request.
“We would be happy to work with you to narrow your request and find the documentation and information which will be responsive to your request,” Roth wrote.
The Mackinac Center's request was broad, but the public interest is served by knowing what city employees knew about the water system contamination. The contamination is likely the largest public health crisis in this state since chemicals called PBBs contaminated Michigan dairy products in the 1970s.
“Everyone recognizes this story is important — and Flint is going to have to do this for free in response to lawsuits anyway,” said Patrick Wright, the senior legal counsel for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “Why would they seek to charge $170,000 for it?”
So tell me: How does Snyder get so much blame when water is a local(not state) function. Must be because he’s a Rebublican.
I believe, their Council is made up of 6 - 8 black Democrats and 2 white Democrats. Hard to point a finger at the Governor when the Council makes the decisions to cut costs and use the water from their river. I’m sure no matter what the emails indicate, the Governor will be blamed.
Funny how the “evil” republican gov. is providing information free of charge and complying with investigators while the “good” democrat city council members are stonewalling
It’s like deja vu all over again. I’m calling it Water-gate with Rick Snyder as the new Richard Nixon.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is responsible to ensure that public water supplies are in compliance with the federal and state Safe Drinking Water Acts. This includes ensuring that the water is tested and safe to drink, approving any new source of water, approving any changes in the chemical treatment of potable water, conducting annual inspections and review of the water supply, and approving most significant engineering and design additions and alterations to the supply.
I suspect that most Water Departments have their own lab to do frequent testing.
Snyder is a fricking idiot!
Some of the larger ones do some of their own testing. But there are hundreds of different contaminants per year for which testing is required and a lab must be accredited for each testing protocol used.
So much for the EPA protecting drinking water. I guess we could defund this government agency and nobody would notice.
Guess you got me. No state monitoring if the locals are not doing their job.
The water leaving the plant was likely in compliance with EPA standards. The problems arose at point sources and end user facilities. Compounds used to treat Flint river water differed in chemistry from the Detroit water chemistry.
The chemical difference stripped the plak, mineral coatings and biological buildups that were present and are present in pipes of typical water systems. In doing so, this chemistry also caused erosion of the base material of the distribution piping, most of which is at point sources.
Testing of point sources it typically done within a districts distribution system at test hydrants and not at private point sources where the most likely lead contamination occurred. These lead laterals that supply many point sources have been in place for a hundred years or more.
The question is how and when this contamination was discovered and how long the EPA sat on this information.
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