EPA To Forgive $21M In Flint Water Crisis Loans

FLINT, MI — Environmental Protection Agency officials said Tuesday the agency is forgiving nearly $21 million in loans to Flint, Michigan, to repair infrastructure associated with the city’s lead-tainted water crisis.

“Forgiving Flint’s past debt will better protect public health and reduce the costs associated with maintaining the city’s water system over time,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in a statement. “Forgiving the city’s debt will ensure that Flint will not need to resume payments on the loan, allowing progress toward updating Flint’s water system to continue.

“Rebuilding our nation's infrastructure is one of the President's top priorities, and EPA is especially focused on those communities, like Flint, that need it the most,” Pruitt said. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Flint Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, follow us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Flint incurred the debt from 1999 to 2003 through four Drinking Water State Revolving Fund loan cycles.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said the EPA gesture “will allow for state funding to be spent on high priority infrastructure needs that maintain recent water quality improvements and address public health concerns.”

The Flint drinking water lead crisis began when the city began getting its water from the Flint River in 2014 in a move that was intended to save the city money. Thousands of residents of the city of 100,000 were exposed to dangerously high levels of lead in what has been called one of the worst man-made public health catastrophes in modern times. Lead is especially dangerous for young children and can cause irreversible brain damage, lower IQs, antisocial behavior and a host of other problems.

So far, 15 people have been charged in a sweeping investigation of the crisis. Michigan’s top public health official and four others were charged with involuntary manslaughter in a Flint man’s death from Legionnaire’s disease. A dozen people in the area have died, and about 100 people have been sickened after the legionella bacteria causing the disease was carried through the city’s water system.

The man-made crisis resulted from a failure of government at all levels, officials have previously said. The EPA’s action was an attempt to make amends to the residents of the city. The EPA’s decision comes days after a federal appeals court said Flint residents can sue the state over its handling of the crisis.

In a 3-0 decision, the court overturned decisions by a judge who said federal water law eclipsed claims of civil rights violations. The court said it wasn't judging the merits of the two lawsuits, but it's allowing residents to at least get inside the courthouse door. The cases now return to U.S. District Judge John Corbett O'Meara in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Photo: Shannon Millard/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP, File

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