Overview:

  • Detroit water consultant Elin Warn Betanzo, who helped uncover the Flint water crisis, was removed from EPA's National Drinking Water Advisory Council after signing a 2025 employee declaration criticizing Trump administration policies.
  • Warn Betanzo filed a lawsuit in June 2026 and is now seeking a preliminary injunction to block EPA's "zero tolerance" dissent policy and reinstate her position.
  • Her attorneys argue the EPA policy violates First Amendment rights and intimidates federal employees into silence on environmental and public health concerns

by Kyle Davidson, Michigan Advance
October 16, 2026

After filing a lawsuit seeking the reinstatement of her position on the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Drinking Water Advisory Council, Elin Warn Betanzo is aiming to block the EPA policy it used to justify her dismissal.

Warn Betanzo is the head of a Detroit-based drinking water consulting firm and is among the individuals who helped to uncover the Flint water crisis. After signing on to a declaration of dissent along with hundreds of other EPA employees in July 2025, Warn Betanzo was removed from her role on the advisory council.

The declaration argued President Donald Trump’s Administration had undermined the agency’s mission of protecting human health and the environment. Employees who signed it were placed on leave, with the EPA saying in a statement that 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.”

In June 2026, Warn Betanzo filed a lawsuit against the EPA and its administrator, Lee Zeldin, arguing they had violated her First Amendment rights by suspending her for criticizing agency leadership.

On Wednesday, Warn Betanzo filed a request for a preliminary injunction, ordering Zeldin and the EPA to cease enforcement of its dissent policy and reinstate her to her position on the National Drinking Water Advisory Council.

“There is no way to interpret the ‘zero tolerance’ policy as constitutionally valid,” Warn Betanzo’s attorneys wrote in their request to U.S. District Court Judge Susan K. DeClercq. 

“The policy’s broad, standardless language and the EPA’s pattern of unconstitutional enforcement leave no room for reinterpretation,” the attorneys wrote, later stating “If left intact, the policy will continue to intimidate employees into silence.”

The EPA said it does not comment on pending litigation “in keeping with a longstanding practice.”

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