Flint: The first indictments

Stephen Busch is the former District Supervisor in the MDEQ Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, Mike Prysby is the former MDEQ engineer who misread the EPA regulations to say that anti-corrosion measures were not required, and Mike Glasgow is the water plant’s laboratory supervisor.

Recall the Associated Press story from a few weeks ago:

Mike Glasgow, the plant’s laboratory supervisor at the time, says he asked district engineer Mike Prysby of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality how often staffers would need to check the water for proper levels of phosphate, a chemical they intended to add to prevent lead corrosion from the pipes. Prysby’s response, according to Glasgow: “You don’t need to monitor phosphate because you’re not required to add it.”

Recalling the meeting Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press, Glasgow said he was taken aback by the state regulator’s instruction; treating drinking water with anti-corrosive additives was routine practice. Glasgow said his gaze shifted to a consulting firm engineer in attendance, who also looked surprised.

“Then,” Glasgow said, “we went on to the next question.”

There has been a lot of public trashing of Governor Rick Snyder over the past several months and, as the man at the top of the pyramid, he has no choice but to take it. But there should be no confusion either that, as I’ve insisted for months, this was first and foremost a technical failure — and that Associated Press story captures the instant of failure.

• Not one person in that room has any excuse for not knowing of the EPA regulatory requirement for anti-corrosion measures.

• Not one person in that room has any excuse for not knowing there was an actual technical need for anti-corrosion measures.

• Neither Glasgow nor the unidentified consultant has any excuse for not contesting — like, to death, with light sabers — the MDEQ’s statement that anti-corrosion measures were not required.

And how on earth did they keep their mouths shut through months of complaints about the quality of the water? There was not merely an egregious failure of good practice, but an egregious failure of character.

One of the odd satisfactions of engineering is that most people have no idea what engineers do for a living. There is electrical power at the outlet when you expect it. There is water at the tap when you expect it. The bridge doesn’t fall down when you drive across it, the dam ponds water just fine, the brakes in your car work when you press the pedal. We’re so good at it that we’re taken for granted, and nobody ever thinks about, or has to, the engineers who make possible every single thing you can see from the desktop where you sit reading this.

Engineering is not just about technical know-how, however; it needs character, too, and as embarrassing for the entire engineering profession as this is, I’m glad they’ve been summoned to explain themselves.