Governor Snyder to make announcement today about water crisis in Flint

Just a day after Gov. Rick Snyder insisted that the consequences of drinking Flint’s water were not “fully understood”, county commissioners issued a recommendation for citizens not to drink the water before it was filtered. The about-face raises questions about the state’s role.

What was supposed to be a cost-cutting move for a 99,000-resident city in financial crisis turned into a health emergency and could end up costing state government at least $10.6 million.

What galls critics is not only the initial decision to pump corrosive Flint River water without adequate treatment. “And there is a need for Flint residents to have a good, safe, clean source of water”.

Last month, a Hurley Medical Center doctor published a study showing that the percentage of Flint infants and children with above average lead levels has almost doubled citywide, and has almost tripled among children in “high risk” areas of lead exposure, according to the study.

Henderson said Wednesday that she believed the position of state officials was shifting on continued use of the Flint River, a change that was made while Flint was being run by a state-appointed emergency manager and overseen by the state Department of Environmental Quality. He said the agency did things “by the book” but is talking with the EPA and internally about whether “some editing needs to happen to the book”.

“Flint paying anything for the problem that the state created in the first place means that other improvements, including to the city’s aging water infrastructure system, could be delayed”.