Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has finally owned up to his personal role in the lead crisis in Flint, calling it his “Katrina” in an interview yesterday with the National Journal’s Ron Fournier. The National Journal reports:
“It’s a disaster,” he said when asked about the comparison some critics have made to the 2005 natural disaster in New Orleans that became a symbol of government mismanagement—city, state, and federal. “It’s clearly a negative on what we’ve accomplished since I’ve been governor.”
In a wide-ranging interview on the eve of his state of the state address, Snyder said he knew last summer about his top aide’s concerns that Flint residents were “getting blown off” by the Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality. The MDEQ waved off his office’s concerns, Snyder said. He accepted responsibility for the lack of adequate follow up, but the twice-elected GOP governor said he would not heed calls for his resignation.
“I want to solve this problem,” Snyder said. “I don’t want to walk away from it.” Both MDEQ’s director and chief spokesman were forced to resign, and Snyder has taken several steps—albeit belatedly—to help Flint identify the extent of the contamination and to respond to it. He said more action will be revealed in Tuesday night’s address.
The full transcript of the interview is at the National Journal as well. And while it may be encouraging for some to hear Snyder finally accept responsibility for the (permanent) lead poisoning of Flint’s citizens, many calling for his resignation wonder just how a governor who was aware of resident concerns about lead in water as early as last summer could remain in office. And how are he and his group of people who caused the crisis the best choices to solve it?
Every hour that Snyder and the DEQ dragged their feet meant more and more exposures to lead for Flint’s citizens. Lead poisoning does not go away and the effects are cumulative, meaning that every second wasted only poisoned people more and more. The incredibly slow response by Snyder’s office to a bold campaign of results-rigging by the DEQ, and his administration’s actions (which encouraged Flint’s switch to the contaminated Flint River), are negligent at best.
A comparison to Katrina would seem apt except for the fact that action on Snyder’s behalf when he first knew of the problem could have stopped the problem entirely, instead of just mitigating it. Katrina was a natural disaster, and while the response and planning were entirely inadequate and racially unjust, there was no decision that could have been made to stop it entirely. At any step in the process Snyder or someone in his administration could have spoken up and actually helped Flint citizens. But they got poisoned instead.