We’ve seen some pretty callous and tone-deaf behavior from Michigan state officials since we learned that the water in Flint is so contaminated, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, even filters aren’t enough to make it drinkable. For instance, we know that Flint residents pay some of the highest water rates in the nation for water they can’t even drink. We also know that they are essentially locked into these rates under the terms of a state loan that allowed Flint to regain control of its finances; city officials can’t lower them without permission from the state treasurer.
Well, add another one to the list. The number-two man at the Michigan Department Of Environmental Quality apparently thinks that the outrage over the Flint water crisis is a lot of fuss over nothing. Yep, you heard that right. An entire city is poisoned, and one of the guys responsible for protecting the state’s environment said, in so many words, “No big deal.”
The Flint Journal got its hands on a transcript of an interview the Michigan State Police conducted with DEQ chief deputy director Jim Sygo in March. It was part of an investigation into the behavior of two DEQ employees. As we all know, when Flint switched its water source to the Flint River as a cost-cutting move, river water corroded the pipes and caused lead to leach into the water supply.
But Sygo pooh-poohed the extent of the damage to both Flint’s infrastructure and the health of its children. He noted that Flint previously used the river as a water source from 1897 to 1967–and “the pipes were not destroyed in those sixty-odd years.” For that reason, he believed that “a lot of this was overplayed as to what the crisis was in Flint.” As he saw it, the crisis was “created more than anything else.”
Okay, Jim. I’ll play. If this whole thing has been “overplayed,” then why did state workers in the Flint area have access to purified water well before residents did? And why were some of Governor Rick Snyder’s staffers concerned enough about the water that they discussed it with their boss as early as October 2014? then-chief of staff propose distributing bottled water to Flint residents as early as March 2015–only to have it shot down because it would make people think “something was wrong with the water”?
And would you be willing to tell the families who have had to rely on bottled water for over a year that their environmental concerns have been overplayed? Would you be willing to tell mothers whose kids may have had their development stunted? And in both cases, would you be willing to do so to their faces, rather than from the comfort of your office in Lansing?
And that’s before we even discuss how fundamentally inaccurate Sygo’s claim is. It is inconceivable that any top-ranking environmental official wouldn’t be aware that the Flint River wasn’t nearly as polluted then as it is now. Indeed, that’s the main reason Flint’s water quality chief asked for a delay in switching from Detroit water until the water treatment plant could be prepared to handle the more corrosive Flint River water.
Neither the DEQ nor Sygo himself are willing to comment. Snyder’s communications director, Ari Adler, said that neither he–nor presumably his boss–can “speak for what Sygo believes.” As Adler sees it, “you would have to ask him what he meant by those comments.”
I thought about taking up Adler on his suggestion. The more I think about it, though, the only thing we need to hear from Sygo is an apology–while he’s resigning. Maybe we should deliver him that message after all–politely, of course. Drop him an email at SygoJ at michigan dot gov.
