Regional EPA Administrator Resigns Over Flint Water Crisis

A regional director with the Environmental Protection Agency is resigning amid the drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
 
Michigan adminstrator Susan Hedman will step down on Febuary 1 to allow the Chicago-based regional office to focus "solely on the restoration of Flint's drinking water," the EPA said in a statement Thursday.

High levels of lead have been detected in the city's water since officials switched from drinking systems and began drawing from the Flint River in 2014.

Hedman and others in the regional EPA office were notified of the contaminated water but waited several months before taking action to treat the water being sent to the area.

"Mismanagement has plagued the region for far too long and Ms. Hedman's resignation is way overdue," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said. 

President Barack Obama said during a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting Thursday that about $80 million in federal funding would be sent to Michigan next week as part of a nationwide investment in water system upgrades, The Associated Press reports. It's not clear how much would go to Flint.

Michigan officials say they still are not certain if there is a link between the drinking water crisis in the area and the increase in local cases of Legionnaries' disease.