Note: This interview pertains to his emails with the US EPA we released this morning, and was conducted before Mayor Walling read the emails between MDEQ and US EPA we obtained and released today. Here is how he responded after becoming aware of MDEQ-US EPA emails we released. He also released a statement available at the end of this article.

1) When you went on TV to drink the water on July 9^th 2015 to show it was safe, was that partly in response to the memo Mr. Miguel Del Toral wrote and the ACLU story raising questions about the safety of Flint water?  If so, how much was your decision influenced by Susan Hedman’s e-mail statement to you, and her July 1 “apology” for Del Toral’s memo? Did MDEQ or anyone assure you the water was safe, or was it just that you figured someone would tell you, if any of the authorities had a concern?  Obviously, the e-mails provide some context for your appearance on TV.

I do a live Thursday inteview on Ch5 every week. They pick the topics and recently there have been many of them about water. I have continued to drink and use the tap water so when they asked me to drink it on the show I did. I don’t know why they chose that week to ask me. I understood Flint water met the standards and that’s why I remarked about it being like standard tap water.

2) At anytime, did Susan Hedman ever tell you who Mr. Del Toral is?  Specifically, did she ever say that many consider him to be the foremost expert on the Lead and Copper Rule in the country? Did she ever say he was credible?

She stated that the memo was under review. We didn’t discuss the individual other than my expectation that the EPA would provide a response on behalf of the agency if the individual was providing comment to media representatives. Later in the discussions with MDEQ in October, Dr. Hedman strongly defended Mr. Del Toral and all of the agency personnel on one of the planning calls for the joint press event. She specifically challenged the characterization of him as a rogue employee and Dan Wyant apologized. 

3) At anytime, did Susan Hedman ever express any support for the scientific validity of Mr. Del Toral’s points?  Did she argue against the points? As an outsider, it would appear that the memo demands an immediate and legitimate response.  Did she ever give a legitimate response of any source, other than to say: “When the report has been revised and fully vetted by EPA management, the findings and recommendations will be shared with the City and MDEQ and MDEQ will be responsible for following up with the City.”

That was it

4) In one newspaper article, you were quoted as saying “Walling said Weaver is making a mistake by citing a letter from “one individual staff person” who does not speak for U.S. EPA.” Did Susan Hedman or anyone from EPA ever once speak up and defend Mr. Del Toral?

I didn’t discuss this with Dr. Hedman, that was my understanding at the time speaking as a candidate.   Later in the discussions with MDEQ in October, Dr. Hedman strongly defended Mr. Del Toral and all of the agency personnel on one of the planning calls for the joint press event. 

5) Did you feel Brad Wurfel’s statement that Mr. Del Toral was a “rogue” employee, correctly summarized the tone of your own conversations with Hedman?

No, we simply discussed initially that the memo would be reviewed and the public statement to that effect

6) In Hedman’s email on September 9^th, what “EPA recommendations” could she possibly be referring to?  Do nothing or talk to MDEQ?  EPA has said or done nothing of substance since Mr. Del Toral’s memo came out, except to apparently revise and vet the memo ad infinitum. We are at a loss as to what she is talking about.

I took it that she was referring to the need to implement additional corrosion controls that came to us from MDEQ in mid August but EPA was involved with as well in the context of the general water treatment process

7) Did Hedman ever give a reason for not attending the October 2^nd press conference, or meeting with the Pastor’s?  Did you feel left high and dry by her?

We talked that morning beforehand. She told me that EPA Legal Counsel denied the request to be at the event because a petition for emergency response had been received Thursday night.  I was disappointed because I wanted the community to see a united front to fix the problem even though I understood the skepticism especially of the state by the local community. It wasn’t easy for me to stand with only state officials but I felt the City needed to be represented and have a voice so I did.

8) Anything else I should be aware of, or that you want to say about EPA’s role in this?

I have found the information from Dr. Hedman and the EPA staff helpful. The challenge for a local official is to know how to access all of the resources available. This is why I made the request to White House Intergovernmental Affairs for a direct point of contact and that is when Dr. Hedman and I connected earlier in the year. Michael Wright was very helpful as we dealt with the tthm problems and the public information around that issue. 

Interview by: Dr. Marc Edwards

Dayne Walling is Mayor, City of Flint.

While it is true that no one gets up in the morning intending to lead poison children, we previously argued that the agencies who created the Flint drinking water crisis worked awfully hard covering up their incompetence and Flint’s lead-in-water problems—in the process, they repeatedly left Flint’s children in harm’s way.

Two recent Freedom of Information act (FOIA) requests confirmed our worst fears as to what was occurring behind the scenes all of these months. Sadly, the e-mails also provided a disappointing answer to our earlier question: Where is the EPA?

We have created two e-mail chronologies that you can download, read, share and comment on for yourself. The first batch of FOIA documents is from the City of Flint, whereas the second set is from MDEQ. We will also post a Q+A with Flint Mayor Dayne Walling based on his e-mails with EPA later today.

Email communication between the City of Flint and US EPA:

Download (PDF, 2.11MB)

Download (PDF, 7.23MB)

You cannot make this stuff up folks.

FLINTWATERSTUDY submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request back in early September for certain documents related to the Flint Water Crisis. We paid MDEQ $400 for them to produce the documents. After waiting and waiting, and pressuring MDEQ to stop wasting time, we finally received the documents at 5 pm on Wednesday October 14^th. We promptly sent MDEQ Director Dan Wyant a series of questions on the content of the FOIAs at 11 am on October 15^th and again on October 16^th. Our questions to MDEQ have gone unanswered.

We had had the FOIA documents for a grand total of 46 hours, when to our surprise we discovered that MDEQ’s Brad Wurfel was leaking those very documents to reporters!

So we asked MDEQ:

Did you guys just send out the FOIA documents I paid nearly $400 for, and you made me wait over a month to get, to other reporters without my permission, and without any FOIA request? I have never heard of such a thing.

MDEQ proudly responded:

I started getting calls on it from reporters today. It’s all public information and they are asking for me to respond to it. When media ask me for information, I work to be transparent. You and others have asked the DEQ to be more transparent, and it is something we are trying to do.  

We have decided to release a detailed chronology tomorrow (10/19) morning of the FOIA documents. This will include:

a) emails between MDEQ and US EPA as the Flint Water Crisis unfolded in the past several months, and

b) emails between Mayor Walling and US EPA.

We will also be posting a Q+A with the Mayor, regarding the emails between him and the US EPA. Stay tuned!