FLINT, MI -- A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official who sounded a dire warning about toxic lead in Flint's drinking water seven months ago says he couldn't believe the water wasn't being treated to make it less corrosive to lead service lines and indoor plumbing.
"I was stunned when I found out they did not have corrosion control in place," Miguel A. Del Toral, regulations manager in the EPA's ground water and drinking water branch, said in an interview with The Flint Journal-MLive today, Jan. 21.
"In my head, I didn't believe that. I thought: That can't be true...that's so basic. That's not possible."
Del Toral wrote an interim report on high levels of lead in Flint water on June 24, 2015, months after other EPA officials had warned the state Department of Environmental Quality that the chemistry of Flint River water was appeared to be causing transmission pipes to leach contaminants such as lead into the water supply.
The interim report also pointed to problems with Flint's water sampling methods, including pre-flushing before collecting samples in homes, a practice that he said underestimated lead levels and allowed city and state officials to tell residents their water met state and federal guidelines.
Del Toral said his recommendations for follow-up with the DEQ and for EPA to determine whether the water system was in violation of federal law bogged down as the state contested whether Flint should be required to further treat its water to make it less corrosive and requested a legal opinion from the federal government.
Mel Brown, a spokeswoman for the DEQ, issued a statement today from DEQ Director Keith Creagh that said the agency "is committed to ensuring that people have safe water."
"We agree with the task force recommendation that past decisions may have relied on the DEQ being technically compliant and are committed to working with partners at the local, state and federal levels to create a comprehensive systems approach in addressing issues," the statement says.
"DEQ is now focused on two things: taking meaningful action to ensure the water in Flint is safe to drink and instilling a new culture of collaboration that will take into consideration community and expert level insight."
Dan Wyant, former DEQ director, resigned his position in December after a task force laid responsibility for the Flint water crisis at the feet of the department.
The chief of the agency's drinking water division was also reassigned, and Gov. Rick Snyder has apologized and acknowledged mistakes in the state's handling of Flint's water problems.
Del Toral said he is not in a position to tell Flint residents why it took state and federal agencies nearly a year to take action in what is now recognized as a national emergency.
"I look at what I could have done ... I think (in this way) its good when something like this happens (because) we have to look at that and say, 'How could we have done this better,' " he said.
Del Toral is among EPA officials who have continued to work with the city and state in developing plans to boost phosphates in the Flint water supply to rebuild a protective coating in transmission pipes -- an effort to keep lead from being disturbed and out of drinking water.
The city has estimated that roughly half its service lines contain lead, and Del Toral said those service lines are typically the leading factor for potential exposure to the deadly toxin.
Flint's records of which homes have lead service lines are in poor condition, kept on maps and more than 40,000 paper index cards.
In November, The Journal reported that city water officials filed certified documents with state regulators that claimed the city only tested tap water from homes where residents had lead service line.
But records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show those claims were false and that the city had no basis for which homes it tested, delaying efforts to fix the public health emergency here.
Del Toral said he cannot estimate when Flint water will be safe to drink again without a lead-clearing filter.
"I would expect the (water) would still be hot. That's a lot of damage (that's been done)," he said. "I think progress will be made steadily, but to somehow" put a timeline on it ... We're still trying to assess."
Lead is a toxic element that can damage the brain and nervous system of children, causing lower IQs, decreased ability to pay attention and underperformance in school.
The city's own tests showed a spike in lead levels after it began using Flint River water in April 2014, but Del Toral and Virginia Tech university professor Marc Edwards have said lead levels are likely higher because areas with lead service lines were not targeting in testing and because of pre-flushing before samples were collected.
A study of the blood lead levels of infants and young children by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha of Hurley Medical Center last year showed the percentage of children with elevated blood lead levels in Flint doubled after the city began using the Flint River for drinking water.
MORE:
* How government poisoned the people of Flint
* Full coverage of the Flint water crisis