Michigan governor to address Flint water crisis

The more polluted river water, treated at the Flint water treatment plant, turned out to be corrosive to the city’s pipes and caused toxic levels of lead to seep into drinking water.

Gov. Rick Snyder will dedicate most of his State of the State address Tuesday night to the Flint water crisis that has engulfed his administration in recent weeks and begin the speech with a direct message to residents of the beleaguered city, The Detroit News has learned.

State Senator Tom Casperson from Escanaba also thinks Snyder will touch on the water issues in Flint.

In January last year, residents of the Michigan-based town of Flint discovered late last year that their local water supply was severely contaminated. “We’re still going to have the lead, we’re still going to have the pipes, we’re still going to have the poison”.

The fierce criticisms forced Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to fight back, at first criticizing others for “politicizing the issue” – before himself calling the situation a “disaster”.

The crisis prompted President Barack Obama to sign an emergency declaration Saturday clearing the way for federal aid.

The Detroit News reported that EPA Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman said “she sought a legal opinion on whether the EPA could force action, but it wasn’t completed until November”.

On Monday, around 100 protesters rallied outside of the governor’s home in downtown Ann Arbor, according to CNN affiliate WXYZ.

Jesse Jackson, speaking in Flint Sunday, compared the city’s water crisis to Hurricane Katrina.

The head of Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality resigned in December after a state task force lambasted his agency’s handling of Flint’s water.

Dennis Muchmore, Snyder’s outgoing chief of staff, said Friday he expects the Republican governor will confront the lead contamination of Flint’s drinking water early and prominently in his address, setting out a comprehensive plan for addressing not only the health-related issues in Flint, but the infrastructure problems there and in other cities around the state.

“Gov. Snyder is focused on helping the people of Flint, not politics”, Dave Murray, a spokesman for Snyder, told the Washington Examiner of the eastern MI town’s water contamination crisis. Despite the legal limitation, the governor is considering an appeal to exhaust “every opportunity to provide resources” for residents, Snyder spokesman Dave Murray said.

“Although many individuals and entities at state and local levels contributed to creating and prolonging the problem, MDEQ is the government agency that has responsibility to ensure safe drinking water in MI”, the task force wrote.

State officials ignored months of health warnings about the foul-smelling water as residents complained it was making them sick, break out in rashes and lose hair.