Paul Egan

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING — Gov. Rick Snyder said Tuesday the federal government had multiple failures with respect to preventing and responding to the lead contamination of Flint's drinking water, and he hopes federal officials are being asked tough questions about their response.

"They failed to do a lot of things in this process," Snyder told reporters after addressing the Michigan Society of Association Executives at the Radisson Hotel in Lansing.

"I'm not going to spend time on their issue," Snyder said. "I think that will come out as time passes, in terms of not identifying the issue, not bringing it to either the state's attention or even other people in the federal government's attention. They still haven't fully acknowledged all of their issues."

"We'll move forward with our issues, and I expect hopefully people are asking good, tough questions of the federal government. They should be asked."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took strong exception to Snyder's remarks in a statement issued late Tuesday through spokeswoman Monica Lee.

"EPA's ability to oversee ... management of that situation was impacted by resistance and failures at the state and local levels to work with EPA in a forthright, transparent, and proactive manner consistent with the seriousness of the risks to public health," the statement said.

The EPA eventually issued an order in January "because the agency's repeated and urgent requests and technical assistance, it was taking too long to address the serious problems with the Flint drinking water system."

Flint's water became contaminated with lead in April 2014, while the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, after it temporarily switched its source of drinking water from Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to Flint River water treated at the Flint water treatment plant.

Flint map: See 666 homes where lead levels too high

For months, state officials dismissed reports of rising lead levels in the drinking water and the blood of Flint children before acknowledging a problem around Oct. 1.

A task force appointed by Snyder, in a preliminary report, said most of the blame falls on the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which misunderstood federal rules and failed to require Flint to add corrosion-control chemicals to the Flint River water. As a result, lead leached from pipes, joints and fixtures into an unknown number of Flint households, causing a spike in lead levels in the blood of many Flint children.

Records show the EPA did not act quickly after an EPA official warned during the summer that the lack of corrosion controls meant the city's population might be getting poisoned by lead.

In January, the EPA's Midwest Region 5 director in Chicago, Susan Hedman, tendered her resignation over the Flint crisis, effective Feb. 1.

In addition to the lead crisis, which leaves the water still unsafe to drink without filters despite a switch back to Detroit water in October, officials are investigating a possible link between the river water and two outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease in the Flint area in 2014 and 2015 which caused nine deaths. In that area, records show a lack of cooperation and slowness to warn the public by local and state officials, as well as federal involvement that did not result in anyone sounding the alarm until Snyder disclosed the possible link in January.

Asked Tuesday if part of the problem was a lack of adequate oversight by him and some of his cabinet members, Snyder said: "I made replacements in the cabinet."

Dan Wyant, who was director of the DEQ, resigned from the cabinet in December. Snyder has rejected calls for his own resignation, saying he wants to stay on and fix the problem.

He told the luncheon of association executives that people from outside the state are trying to "fight and blame" over the issue, but that's "not how you solve the problem."

Snyder has requested $232 million from the Legislature over two budget years to address issues in Flint, such as paying for the distribution of bottled water and filters, deploying the Michigan National Guard, addressing a range of nutrition and health issues, and repairing or replacing damaged infrastructure.

The federal government has made available up to $5 million after declaring a federal emergency, has numerous officials in Flint working on water testing and other issues, and has said it will expand Medicaid eligibility for certain Flint residents.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.