Police Going Door-to-Door Amid Michigan Water Crisis

Governor Snyder is in Flint Monday, addressing the health emergency involving the city’s lead contaminated water.

The water resource teams consisting of state personnel, including Michigan State Police (MSP) troopers, will be handing out bottled water, water filters, replacement cartridges and water testing kits.

The Republican governor says residents should use filters and bottled water until Flint’s switch back to Detroit water is assessed.

The financially strapped city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched its source of tap water to the nearby Flint River in April 2014 from Detroit’s water system to save money. It’s been three months since the state first acknowledged lead contamination in the city’s water supply.

The cost-cutting move – which was to be a stopgap move while the city waited for the new Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline to Lake Huron to be built – resulted in a spike in lead levels in children.

Hey Flint, Michigan, we’ve got 50,000 cans of fresh water comin’ atchu. A spokesman for the governor said Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials were already in Flint providing technical assistance on the issue. Dozens of people gathered in front of the water department Friday armed with signs calling for Snyder to step down.

(AP) – Members of the United Auto Workers union are donating drinking water to Flint residents affected by the city’s water crisis.

“What the governor should do is become fully accountable to this problem and give us the finances that we need to rectify the problem”, Davis said.

On Jan. 5, Snyder declared a state of emergency due to the water contamination. Former DEQ Director Dan Wyant resigned last month. “Lead poisoning causes irreversible behavioral and developmental difficulties”.

This guaranteed that the water for the city would be carried by ancient pipes that leached lead into it. E-mails that finally have been pried loose from Snyder’s administration have revealed that the administration was fully aware of what was going on, and blew off the problem.

Last week, a professor who has investigated the Flint situation posted online an email obtained through a public records request that shows Snyder’s chief of staff expressing concerns in July to Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon that Flint residents were “basically getting blown off”.

“It does let us know that our voice is being heard”, Weaver said.