PRESS RELEASE
Obama to Flint, Michigan: Drop Dead
Jan. 18, 2016 (EIRNS)—President Barack Obama and his fanatic "climate change" Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Gina McCarthy knew for months, and took no more action to stop the threat of mass lead-poisoning of the people of Flint, Michigan from its contaminated water supply than did Michigan’s Republican Gov. Rick Synder. That is to say, they did nothing.
Obama declared a state of emergency in Flint only this past Saturday, Jan. 16, and the action authorized is minimal: FEMA is to supply emergency assistance in the form of "water, water filters, water filter cartridges, water test kits, and other necessary related items for a period of no more tha 90 days," with 75% Federal funding covering only direct Federal assistance. No mobilization of the Army Corps of Engineers to rapidly replace contaminated pipes; no emergency health program; no program to reverse the deindustrialization which created the problem.
Furthermore, the decision to declare only an emergency, and not a disaster, limits funding to an initial allocation of $5 million, which does not even cover the cost of 90 days of emergency water supplies. More funds can be mobilized, but only by going to Congress.
The EPA knew of the contamination by no later than June 2015. EPA local water expert Miguel Del Toral identified potential contamination of Flint’s water in February 2015; had confirmed the problem by April; and sent an internal memo to federal EPA in June 2015, according to Jan. 12 stories in the Detroit News and Huffington Post. Instead of making the findings public, EPA Regional Director Susan Hedman reprimanded the circulation of what she dismissed as a "preliminary draft report," which not been "fully vetted by EPA management," in a July 1 e-mail. By August, a researcher at Hurley Medical Center in Flint had documented high levels of lead in the bloodwork of city children. In September, the mayor of Flint called for Federal intervention.
The EPA remained silent. While Flint’s people were being poisoned, EPA chief Gina McCarthy was shutting down coal plants, enforcing a redefinition of the "Clean Water Rule" which restricts agriculture, and preparing U.S. participation for the Paris UN COP21 climate change depopulation summit. The administration has "its sleeves rolled up" in 2016 to enforce the "low-carbon future" adopted in Paris, she wrote on Jan. 4.
McCarthy told reporters today that in Flint: "EPA did its job, but clearly the outcome was not what anyone would have wanted." Except the Malthusian genocidalists.
