The US Federal Bureau of Investigation says it is joining the probe into the toxic water situation in the former industrial powerhouse city of Flint, Michigan.  The FBI is working alongside Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigators, who can tackle criminal violations of federal environmental law.

Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder has apologized repeatedly for the state's role in switching the City of Flint's water supply in 2014 from clean Great Lakes water to the corrosive Flint River, which created the crisis.  That supply was not properly treated and leached toxic lead from the city's aging system of pipes, bringing the noxious mess straight to the taps of homes in Flint, a largely poor and minority community.  Lead contamination has been linked to learning disabilities and other problems.

An FBI spokeswoman told US journalists in an email that the agency's role is "investigating the matter to determine if there have been any federal violations."  She declined to say when the FBI got involved.  Investigators will look closely at Governor Snyder's appointment of an "economic emergency manager" who legally usurps the role of Flint's democratically-elected local officials; the decision to switch water supplies in order to save US$15 Million per year; what they knew about lead contamination and when they knew it. 

But there are already many troubling revelations; the state ignored residents' complaints that their tap water was discolored and foul-tasting; doctors complaints about evidence of children with lead poisoning was also ignored by Snyder and his underlings, until they self-published their data to embarrass the state into action; while state officials claimed nothing was wrong with Flint's water, they secretly supplied their employees with free bottled water.

Flint was switched back to Great Lakes water in October, but the city's 25,000 lead service lines that run between water mains and homes need to be replaced.  Flint Mayor Karen Weaver valiantly declared, "These lead pipes have got to go."  But it's not clear where the cash-strapped rust-belt town will get the money, or if she even has the authority to order the work to begin, because Snyder's Emergency Manager hold the actual power in town.  Flint's representative in Congress is introducing a bill to appropriate US$1 Billion to fix the problem, but southern conservatives are already calling it a local problem and lining up against it.