“It was the injustice of it all and that the very agencies that are paid to protect these residents from lead in water, knew or should’ve known after June at the very very latest of this year, that federal law was not being followed in Flint, and that these children and residents were not being protected,” says Edwards. “And the extent to which they went to cover this up exposes a new level of arrogance and uncaring that I have never encountered.”

from

http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-01-07/flint-michigan-crisis-over-lead-levels-tap-water

One memo to a state aide says an Environmental Protection Agency expert, Miguel Del Toral, said in February and April 2015 that the state was testing the water in a way that could profoundly understate the lead levels.

Referring to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality, the memo says that “staffers have essentially downplayed or ignored warning signs” from Mr. Del Toral — warnings that seemed “to lay out exactly what’s come to pass. ...”

According to the memo, Mr. Del Toral had written: “Given the very high lead levels found at one home and the preflushing happening in Flint, I’m worried that the whole town may have much higher lead levels than the compliance results indicated, since they are using preflushing ahead of their compliance sampling.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/us/flint-michigan-lead-water-crisis.html?_r=0