Observations from the
FLINT WATER RESPONSE
Resilient People. Healthy Communities. A Nation Prepared.
Flint Water Crisis Timeline
 5/2014 City of Flint Switched from Detroit Water to the Flint
River as its primary water source
 Different characteristics of the water and lack of corrosion
control resulted in leaching of lead into the water supply
 10/1/15 Genesee County Health Department issues Health
Advisory
 12/14/15 state of emergency declared by City of Flint
 1/4/16 Genesee County declares State of Emergency and
requests a Governor’s declaration
 1/5/16 Governor issues Declaration of Emergency, State EOC
Activated 24/7
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Flint Water Crisis Timeline cont…
 1/9/16 5 fire stations open  1/19/16 U.S. DHHS designated as Lead
Federal Agency; Dr. Nicole Lurie
as Points of Distribution
designated as Lead Federal Official
 1/14/16 Request for
Emergency Declaration and  1/20/16 Federal Personnel deploy to
Flint
Major Disaster Declaration
 1/25/16 Unified Coordination Group
 1/16/16 Emergency
Formed; Joint Incident Action Plan
Declaration approved;
Generated
Major Disaster Declaration
denied
 2/1/16 State LNOs join UCG
 1/17/16 FEMA IMAT
 8/14/16 FEMA Emergency Declaration
deploys to Lansing ISO
ends; UCG continues operations
Emergency Declaration
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HHS as Lead Federal Agency (LFA)
 Draft PPD for Non-Stafford Act Responses
 Created Organizational Structure that became the
UCG
 HQ HHS Set Overarching Objectives
-
Immediate Access to Safe Water
Long Term Water System Recovery
Address Immediate Health Needs
Mitigate Long Term Health Effects
 Objectives impacted which Departments
participated in UCG
- Resulted in fractured Federal response
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Unified Coordination Group
Lead Federal Official
Dr. Nicole Lurie, HHS
FHCO
Tony Voirin, HHS
UCG
EPA, CDC, FEMA,
State of Michigan
Operations
Logistics
Planning
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Finance & Admin
Operations
Operations
Human
Services
Task Force
HHS
Water Quality
Task Force
EPA, ATSDR
Nutrition
Task Force
USDA
Health &
Medical
Task Force
HHS, CDC
Public & External Affairs
Task Force
HHS, EPA, FDA, FEMA, CDC
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Health and Medical Task Force
HMTF
 Objectives
- Facilitate children's’ lead case management in Genesee Co.
- Provide community behavioral health assessment, planning and training
build community capacity
- Provide subject matter expertise for health-related community concerns
- Ensure HHS resources/programs engage
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HMTF – Lead Case Management
 Backlog of blood lead level results, confirming screening
results, and ensuring access to case management
- Finding affected children/families and contacting caregivers
- Community trust
- Providing in home education, environmental assessments, assisting with
access to healthcare system
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HMTF – Behavioral Health
 2 USPHS Mental Health Teams collaborated with the Genesee
Health System (GHS) to:




Develop and build behavioral health service capacity
Support community responders
Develop a community-driven BH response plan
Establish a BH surveillance plan
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HMTF – Subject Matter Expertise
 Water sampling and health consults – GCHD and EPA/ATSDR
 Drinking Water Assessment of Chemical Exposure (ACE)
investigation
 Biological water testing
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Water Quality Task Force
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Sequential Sampling
• Water stagnant for six
hours
• Tens of bottles collected
sequentially
• Paints a picture from
tap to main
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Sequential Sampling
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Filter Grabs
•
•
•
•
•
NSF rated for lead up to
150 ppb
Hundreds of results over
150 ppb
Are the filters working?
Found aerators full of pipe
scale
Over 200 FG samples
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Water Quality Task Force





Health Based Sampling – Rash
Health Consultations
Residual Chlorine Monitoring
Community Engagement
$80.08 million in Grants and
Programmatic Support
 $80 million available from the water
infrastructure state revolving fund
allocated to the State of Michigan
 $80,000 in grant funding for Virginia Tech
University to continue sampling and
testing of Flint’s water supply
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Public and External Affairs Task
Force
 External Affairs
 Public Affairs
 Press Conferences
 Press Releases/Messages
 Community Engagement
 Community Meetings
 Congressional Affairs
 State and Local
Coordination
 Flint Recovery Group
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Nutrition and Education Task Force
NETF
 Objective
 Work with Michigan DHHS and DOEd to facilitate requests regarding health
and nutrition programs for the school system and enhance healthy food
availability for the community.
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Nutrition
 $26.9 million to expanded SNAP benefits for over 15,000
children during the summer
 $62,700 to help purchase fruits & vegetables for 1,200
students
Department of Agriculture (USDA) - $27.5 million
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Human Services Task Force
HSTF
 Objectives:
 Determine federal programs to increase healthcare access and support
pregnant and nursing women and children’s needs
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Human Services
 $16.1 million for emergency child development and care
 $5 million for behavioral health support for juveniles and
their families
 $3.6 million to expand services and new spots for Head Start
 $1 million to increase patient capacity and improve primary
care services
 $500,000 to conduct blood lead level testing and monitoring
 $475,194 in an emergency response grant for behavioral
health services
Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)
$26.5 million
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Agencies Responding in Flint
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Other Federal Aid to Flint
 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - $17.5M
 Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) - $325k
 Department of Transportation (DOT) -$20M
 Department of Labor (DOL) - $16.3M
 Small Business Administration (SBA) - $400k
$171 million in non-Stafford Act Support
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Preliminary AAR Comments
 Authorities of Lead Federal Agency Defined
- Authority to Direct or Coordinate
- Access to Surge Funding
- Consider how the LFA relates to State
 LFA designation resulted in many decisions being driven from
Washington D.C.
- Feds did not deploy to Flint at the request of the State
- LFO in D.C.; traveled frequently to Flint
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Preliminary AAR Comments
 Did not follow National Response Framework
- UCG was not a joint State-Federal organization
• Federal Departments engaging directly with community
- FEMA did not act as lead federal coordinator
• Fractured, distributed Federal response
- State plans and exercises to respond using NRF
• State did not know how to relate to the UCG
• State did not mirror UCG in organization
 Did not use National Disaster Recovery Framework
- While very “recoveryish”, FDRC never designated
- RSFs would have better represented full Federal family
• Capacity Building, Economic, Housing represented
- Would have unified Federal messaging
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Preliminary AAR Comments
 ESF15 should be led by FEMA
- FEMA has personnel trained to lead entire ESF15 mission
- ESF15 more than coordinating messages/press releases
• External Affairs, Public Affairs, Press Conferences, Press Releases/Messages,
Community Engagement, Congressional Affairs, State and Local
Coordination
- UCG did not represent entire Federal Government
- State’s JIC for Water Commodities Mission only
 HHS Support to FHCO
- HHS needs to develop a FHCO Support Team
• IRCT is trained for tactical team management
- Operational level Incident Action Planning, Public and External Affairs,
Information Management, Executive Assistant (Brain)
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Preliminary AAR Comments
 FHCO Training
-
Perform as Federal Coordinating Officer
Face of the Federal Government
Responsible for the entire ESF15 mission
Need to define core competencies
 No System of Record
-
Non-Stafford Act Response – No Web EOC
No formal request for assistance process
Email became de facto record
Need to standardize processes
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QUESTIONS?