Todd Spangler

Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence's office said Tuesday that she and her staff have received word a U.S. House committee will hold a hearing Wednesday, Feb. 3, on the Flint water crisis and the state and federal government response to high lead levels there, but committee staff declined to confirm the report, calling it "premature."

Lawrence's office also said it heard the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to invite Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and others to testify on the crisis sparked by reports dating back nearly a year of high lead levels being found in drinking water in Flint, though the committee declined to confirm that as well.

"The details being discussed surrounding a hearing on the Flint water crisis are entirely premature," the committee said in a statement. "There are no confirmed details at this time, particularly with respect to a date or witness invitations."

Dave Murray, press secretary to Snyder, said his office had received no communication from the committee but "look forward to hearing from its leaders," leaving open the question of whether the governor, who has apologized for the state's role in the crisis, would testify. He reiterated that the crisis is "the result of missteps of government at all levels."

Lawrence's announcement of the hearing was atypical, given that hearing notices usually come directly from committee leaders, in this case Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. Witness lists are typically released just days before a hearing, meaning details could change.

But if the hearing comes off as Lawrence's office believes, it would be the first public congressional inquiry into a crisis that has received international attention after first Snyder, on Jan. 5, and then President Barack Obama last Saturday declared a state of emergency in Genesee County and Flint.

Speaking to CBS News on Wednesday in Detroit, Obama called the handling of the Flint water crisis “inexplicable and inexcusable" after lead was found in the water. That came as long ago as February 2015, when a homeowner in Flint contacted local, state and federal EPA officials about high lead-levels at her home — levels an EPA manager confirmed for himself not long after, though state officials continued to insist the water was safe.

Later in 2015, a local pediatrician, Dr. Mona Hanna-Atissha, found that blood lead levels in children had risen significantly. Even after that, however, it took months before the state, with the Department of Environmental Quality having primary responsibility over Flint's water, acknowledged mistakes in not requiring corrosion controls as required which could have stopped lead from leaching into the water supply from old service lines throughout the city.

Now, Flint residents are being urged not to drink the water without using filters and tens of thousands of cases of bottled water have been distributed, along with water testing kits, water filters and more. And while not committing funding for infrastructure repair, the federal government has deployed the Centers for Disease Control, the EPA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other agencies to help respond to the crisis.

Flint, one of the poorest cities in the nation, has also seen a spike in the number of Legionnaire's Disease cases, which some, including Virginia Tech University researcher Marc Edwards, who has led an independent response to test residents' water and gather government documents related to it through Freedom of Information Act requests, believes also may be linked to old service lines affected by the increased corrosive properties of water from Flint River water.

Lawrence wants Congress to look into Flint water crisis

The city switched to drawing water from the Flint River as a temporary cost-saving money in 2014. The EPA has said since that the state DEQ should have required corrosion control from the beginning, though it, too, has acknowledged its rules may have been subject to interpretation.

"The situation in Flint represents a crisis of leadership on all levels," said Lawrence, D-Southfield, in a letter sent a week ago to leaders of the Oversight Committee, of which she is a member, asking for a hearing. She said it was Congress' responsibility to address "a man-made disaster created by the poor policy decisions of elected and career government officials."

So far, the DEQ has taken the brunt of the blame for not requiring corrosion control treatments but in recent weeks and months, questions have also been raised about when Snyder's office was aware of the concerns in Flint and what it did to address them.

Snyder has said he will do his best to address them, asking the Legislature for $28.5-million in emergency funding to aid in the effort.

But there have also been questions asked as to why the Environmental Protection Agency, with authority for regulating the nation's rules on lead in drinking water, didn't move more aggressively when it became clear that Flint wasn't performing corrosion controls as long ago as last April, according to emails received by Edwards.

As late as July, after an EPA manager's draft report on high lead levels sampled months earlier and other problems in Flint had circulated, the agency's Region 5 head in Chicago, Susan Hedman, told Flint's then-Mayor Dayne Walling that the draft "shouldn't have been released" until after it had been "revised and fully vetted."

Another congressional panel, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, has called on the EPA to explain its role in investigating the Flint crisis. On Thursday, Peter Grevatt, director of the EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, spent nearly 1 1/2 hours briefing congressional staff members on the crisis but refused to answer questions from a reporter afterwards as he was hustled outside by his staff.

Requests to interview Hedman have gone unanswered as well.

“The people of Flint deserve answers," an aide to Upton said after the briefing. "Today’s bipartisan staff briefing was to learn more details about the Flint Water crisis, specifically what the EPA knew and when, the relationships between EPA and the state, and EPA and the city. ... Questions still remain."

The aide spoke anonymously because the briefing was done in private.

Lawrence's office said that the committee had accepted her suggestion to invite Snyder as well as Dan Wyant, who resigned as MDEQ’s director in the wake of the crisis; Hedman, current Flint Mayor Karen Weaver; Hanna-Atissha and Edwards.

Contact Todd Spangler at 703-854-8947 or at tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler