Justice
How Democracy Died in Flint
A congressional hearing on Wednesday revealed the toxic timeline of the city’s water crisis—and how democracy might be repaired.
Three hours into the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the Flint water crisis Wednesday, a man in the audience raised a hand-made sign: BRING BACK DEMOCRACY TO MICHIGAN.
He lifted it as Joel Beauvais, Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water, evaded questions about why the EPA took nearly a year to act on its knowledge of lead levels in Flint’s water, which were seven times the federal standard. The man waved his sign minutes after Keith Creagh, interim director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, stated, “In hindsight, I believe we all share a responsibility for the crisis in Flint water.”