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House panel accuses officials of covering up Flint water crisis

Blame ricocheted around the room for hours at a congressional hearing Wednesday on the Flint water crisis.
Will Burnett helps load a cart with bottled water at the Salvation Army Flint Beecher Corps Community Center in Flint, Mich., Jan. 26, 2016. (Photo by Carlos Osorio/AP)
Will Burnett helps load a cart with bottled water at the Salvation Army Flint Beecher Corps Community Center in Flint, Mich., Jan. 26, 2016.

The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's water office told lawmakers Wednesday that Michigan authorities broke federal rules requiring them to add anti-corrosive materials to drinking water pumped into Flint homes, triggering a lead-poisoning crisis.

But critics also accused the EPA of covering up what it knew about that misconduct while Flint residents continued drinking the tainted water.

"If it's not criminal, I don't know what is," Marc Edwards, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech who helped uncover the pollution, told a House Oversight Committee hearing on the crisis.