The Metro: She wouldn’t stay quiet. The EPA removed her
She helped expose the Flint water crisis. Then she signed a letter warning the EPA was walking away from its mission — and the agency removed her from a federal drinking water panel. Now she’s suing.
Drinking water engineer Elin Warn Betanzo is suing the EPA over her removal from a federal advisory panel.
Imagine opening your work calendar one morning and finding a meeting simply gone — deleted. And the meeting that vanished was about the safety of the water millions of people drink.
That’s what happened to Elin Warn Betanzo— a Michigan drinking water engineer, and one of the people who helped uncover the Flint water crisis.
More recently, she sat on a small federal panel that advises the government on drinking water. Then she signed her name to a public letter, alongside hundreds of other current and former employees, warning that the Environmental Protection Agency was walking away from its mission to protect the public. Two days later, the agency suspended her from that panel.
Now she’s suing to get her seat back. And her case raises a bigger question — one that reaches all the way to your kitchen sink: what happens to the rest of us when the government tells its own scientists to stay quiet?
Betanzo joined host Robyn Vincent on The Metro to talk about Flint, the lawsuit, and what’s at stake for anyone who drinks from a tap.
The Metro contacted the EPA, which said it does not comment on pending litigation. When the agency placed the dissent-letter signatories on leave last year, it said it has a “zero-tolerance policy” for employees it accuses of “undermining, sabotaging and undercutting” the administration’s agenda.
Hear the full conversation using the media player above.
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