Column: Flint and fighting for public's right to know
The ongoing water crisis in Flint has focused a floodlight on the threat that secrecy poses to public health and safety and the critical need for greater transparency to combat it.
Flint is only the latest illustration of officials hiding information about toxins in the water. In Washington, D.C., federal officials shielded information from the public and minimized concerns over dangerous levels of lead toxins in the municipal water.
And Flint and D.C. are far from being alone; a recent USA Today analysis of EPA data has shown that hundreds of schools across the country suffer from lead-tainted water. The investigation also highlights the lack of enforcement from the EPA and some state governments, and, in many cases, a failure to fix problems immediately.
Critically, as in both Flint and D.C., those who suffer the worst, if not all, the impacts of such concealment and malfeasance are too often communities of color. Publicly accessible and usable information is central to combating these structural injustices and disproportionate consequences, and forcing the larger community to pay attention.
In the cases of lead contamination in drinking water, greater public scrutiny and official accountability through enhanced access to information are essential to addressing the problem.
In the case of D.C., while the EPA knew in 2002 of the dangerous lead levels in Washington’s water, journalists and independent researchers had to fight, through research and FOIA requests, to gain the access to information needed to force officials to take action. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally admitted in 2010 it had misled the public on the dangers of D.C.’s drinking water, after years of contamination had affected the health and futures of hundreds of young children.
Similar to the case of D.C., official concerns with the Flint water system were largely shielded from public view, and it took public interest actors — an intrepid journalist, a brave doctor, and a whistleblower at the EPA– to expose the dangerous lead levels.
In January of this year, EPA issued an “Emergency Order” on Flint water, accusing Michigan officials, among other things, of a lack of transparency. A string of emails Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was forced through public pressure to release show that his closest advisors discussed the poor water quality in Flint as early as fall 2014, and were privately worried that Flint’s water troubles could spiral into a political crisis before the governor’s re-election bid.
EPA also clearly shares the blame. Miguel Del Toral, a Michigan-based manager for the Environmental Protection Agency turned whistleblower, described in internal emails the EPA as “a cesspool” for officials reluctant to act in the face of clear evidence of threatening lead levels in Flint’s drinking water.
Public outrage in the wake of these information disclosures has led to some measures of accountability. Nonetheless, greater transparency and policy changes guiding open government activities are still drastically needed. While Governor Snyder bowed to public pressure to release thousands of pages of email, those that have been released have been at the governor’s discretion, as the Michigan’s governor’s office and state legislature are exempt from FOIA.
It is apparent that more sunlight is drastically needed as a disinfectant to this urgent health and safety threat. The key to this includes tangible reforms to state FOIA laws and compliance with state records management rules that ensures ongoing and protected public access to information needed to address these and other threats to health and safety. Information alert systems to warn communities about environmental hazards, and proactive disclosures measures are also key.
Flint’s water crisis was not the first in this country and, tragically, without greater sunlight and public scrutiny, it will not be the last. The Flint experience provides important lessons on why information is critical to protecting safety, health, and well-being of communities across the country and what it will take to ensure public access.
Patrice McDermott is executive director and Jesse Franzblau is policy associate at OpenTheGovernment.org