Michigan cooperative, confrontational with US on Flint water

The EPA said Susan Hedman, head of the agency’s regional office in Chicago whose jurisdiction includes MI, was stepping down February 1 so the EPA could focus “solely on the restoration of Flint’s drinking water”.

The governor of MI said Friday that race was not a factor in the state’s response to lead contamination in the drinking water in Flint, a poor, majority-black city where the supply has been tainted for more than a year, but for much of that time, state officials insisted that it was safe to drink. Officials say the number was changed after they found some deaths weren’t considered to have been caused by Legionnaires.

The water crisis in Flint has caught the attention of the local area. The majorly African-American populated city has announced that its discolored water is not safe for drinking.

Michigan’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder, is in the hot seat. On Friday, FEMA turned down the state’s appeal.

“I can understand why the citizens of Flint would have high skepticism”, he told MSNBC.

“If you look on our package, we are in Flint”.

Rick Snyder has hired the national public relations firm Mercury LLC, where the spouse of Snyder’s new chief of staff is a senior vice president, to help with communications during the Flint water crisis.

Also Friday, State Representative Sheldon Neeley accused the Snyder administration of hiding some of the governor’s correspondence on the issue.

In a September 25 email, Muchmore said he could not “figure out why the state is responsible” before noting that former state Treasurer Andy Dillon had signed off on the city’s plans to build a water pipeline from Lake Huron, which required a temporary switch to the Flint River during construction.

The city of Flint started drawing water from the poisoned Flint River in April 2014 after the nearby city of Detroit began charging higher water rates in the aftermath of the city’s bankruptcy restructuring.

Residents complained about the water within weeks, but officials did not take action until October 2015 after tests showed some tap water and children with elevated levels of lead, a neurotoxin that causes brain damage and other health issues.

For decades, the city relied on the Detroit water system to provide water.

The agency also released a letter from EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to Snyder outlining terms of the order.

The article states, “For civil rights advocates, the health crisis in Flint smacks of what has become known as environmental racism”. The decision to try to save money by switching water supplies was approved by one of the emergency managers.

He works as shift manager at Carriage Town Ministries, Flint’s largest homeless shelter, where water fountains have been shut off. Bottles of water are doled out with meals and medication, and as needed.

(AP Photo/Paul Sancya). Louis Singleton receives water filters, bottled water and a test kit from Michigan National Guard Specialist Joe Weaver as clean water supplies are distributed to residents, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016 in Flint, Mich. The National G…

Snyder has rejected calls from critics for his resignation over the crisis.

“The tragedy that we’re seeing in Flint is a manmade crisis”, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said at his briefing on Thursday, noting that federal disasters can legally only be declared only for a natural disaster or an “act of God”.

The controversial approach to water testing is so widespread that it occurs in “every major USA city east of the Mississippi” according to an anonymous source with extensive knowledge of the lead and copper regulations.