Overview:
- Elin Warn Betanzo, a Michigan engineer who helped uncover the Flint water crisis, filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement to EPA's National Drinking Water Advisory Council.
- Betanzo was dismissed after signing a declaration of dissent with hundreds of EPA employees criticizing policies they say contradict the agency's public health mission.
- The lawsuit alleges violations of First Amendment rights, with Betanzo arguing the EPA is intimidating public servants into silence.
by KYLE DAVIDSON
Michigan Advance
Following her dismissal from the Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water advisory council, a Michigan-based engineer is taking legal action, accusing the department of violating her right to dissent.
Elin Warn Betanzo, the president and founder of Safe Water Engineering LLC and among those who helped uncover the Flint water crisis, filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking her reinstatement to the EPA’s National Drinking Water Advisory Council.
In her complaint, Betanzo argued the agency violated her First Amendment rights alongside the Administrative Procedures Act, Federal Advisory Committee Act and Whistleblower Protection Act, by dismissing her from her role for signing a “declaration of dissent” alongside hundreds of other EPA employees, which criticized the agency for implementing policies they say run counter to the agency’s mission of protecting public health and the environment.
“Today I am continuing my fight for safe water by suing the Trump administration for violating my First Amendment right to free speech,” Warn Betanzo said. “The administration fired me and my EPA colleagues to scare public servants into silence. I’ve fought for safe drinking water before, and I will not be intimidated.”
In a previous statement, the EPA criticized employees who signed on to the petition, saying it “has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November.”
Warn Betanzo’s complaint argues the agency’s response was “clearly intended to intimidate employees into silence by making an example of the petition signatories.”
“Everyone understood the ‘zero tolerance’ policy: employees will be punished for any public criticism of administration leadership,” it reads.
The EPA’s Press Office told Michigan Advance that it does not comment on pending litigation “in keeping with a longstanding practice.”
Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jon King for questions: info@michiganadvance.com.
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