FLINT: "Panel Issues Emails Showing EPA Reluctance To Confront State"

"U.S. EPA's Region 5 office tiptoed around Michigan's environmental agency to avoid conflict on the lead contamination issue in Flint, Mich., even questioning whether to issue a violation for failing to prevent corrosion to the city's lead pipes, emails show.

Documents released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee yesterday show an agency that seemed more intent on maintaining a relationship with the state than enforcing environmental law.

As EPA employees began to realize in the summer of 2015 that Flint's public drinking water was not treated to reduce corrosion before coursing through the city's network of pipes and into homes, they discussed in an email chain how to address "this situation in Flint.""

Tiffany Stecker reports for the E&E Daily March 16, 2016.