Request for Review of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ Compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

A coalition of organizations and individuals requested federal civil rights reviews of MDEQ and MDHHS, alleging that the Flint water crisis and pollution in Wayne County demonstrate a pattern of environmental injustice. The signatories argue that MDEQ failed to implement required corrosion control and manipulated lead testing, while MDHHS failed to respond to public health spikes and provided inadequate emergency services to people with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency.

• The Flint water crisis is characterized as a case of environmental injustice where majority Black and impoverished residents did not receive the same protection from health hazards as other communities and lacked equal access to government decision-making due to emergency management.
• MDEQ violated the Safe Drinking Water Act’s Lead and Copper Rule by instructing Flint to forgo necessary corrosion control and using flawed sampling methods that encouraged flushing pipes and failed to test the most at-risk homes.
• MDHHS failed to act on early warnings of the crisis, including a 2014 spike in children's blood lead levels and a Legionellosis outbreak, instead attributing the lead spike to seasonal variation.
• Emergency response services coordinated by MDHHS were inadequate for residents with limited English proficiency (LEP), as most information was provided only in English and distribution sites lacked interpreters for Spanish, Arabic, Hmong, and Mandarin.
• Undocumented immigrants in Flint faced additional barriers to receiving clean water because MDHHS required government-issued photo identification at distribution centers.
• The state's emergency response discriminated against people with disabilities by failing to provide home delivery of bottled water and failing to provide ASL interpreters for water testing visits.
• In Wayne County, MDEQ has a pattern of ignoring the disproportionate pollution burden on communities of color, specifically in zip code 48217, which is 86.3% African American and described as the state's most polluted zip code.
• Air pollution in Wayne County's nonattainment areas has led to Detroit being called the "epicenter of asthma burden in Michigan," with adult asthma prevalence 50% higher than the statewide average.
• Industrial air pollution in Wayne County disproportionately affects students of color, with 81.5% of African American and 62.1% of Latino students attending schools in the top 10% of the state's dirtiest air zones.

APA

Earthjustice (2016). Request for Review of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ Compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/flintletterfinal.pdf

Chicago

Earthjustice. Request for Review of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ Compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. 2016. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/flintletterfinal.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Earthjustice |title=Request for Review of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ Compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 |date=12 July 2016 |url=https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/flintletterfinal.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{earthjustice2016request, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{Request for Review of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ Compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973}}, publisher = {Earthjustice}, year = {2016}, month = jul, url = {https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/flintletterfinal.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }