Michigan governor signs $28M bill to address water crisis

Mother Jones reported January 28 that according to newly released emails, MI officials began shipping clean water to its employees before publicly acknowledging the city’s water contamination crisis.

Caleb Buhs, a spokesman for the agency that manages state buildings, told the Associated Press that the watercoolers were introduced at the state building after Flint failed drinking water tests that had nothing to do with the lead issues that residents now face. In January of previous year, the Snyder administration told Flint residents their water was safe to drink.

He also said the water was provided until early summer, and then again in October after a public health emergency was declared. Further, he said the water coolers are still being provided to a state office building in Flint and that state employees are also able to use the drinking fountains. However, there are still up to 25,000 service lines containing lead that run between water mains and homes in Flint.

Earlier this week, the House Oversight Committee confirmed it would hold the first congressional hearing on the Flint water crisis, which apparently was caused by corrosive water from the Flint River leaching lead from old service pipes, on February 3. With Flint residents having consumed the contaminated water since April 2014, numerous effects of lead poisoning and other toxins are irreversible.

During this time, both city and state officials were denying that Flint’s water was unsafe.

Snyder said Friday he had “no knowledge of that taking place”. For the people of Flint, let’s help get Snyder out of office and get busy fixing the disaster that he created. Residents of the city of 100,000 people had complained for months about elevated readings of lead in drinking water and the blood of some children.

Governor Rick Snyder signed a law today that’ll allocate $28 million in emergency funding to address short-term needs stemming from Flint’s water crisis. A coalition of advocacy groups allege that by switching drinking water sources, Flint officials violated the United States federal Safe Drinking Water Act, meaning a USA federal court could order Flint to replace its lead-pipe infrastructure immediately.

“Every child could have possibly been affected and we’re treating it that way”, Snyder said.

Democratic U.S. Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow of MI on Thursday proposed up to $400 million in emergency federal funding to replace and fix lead-contaminated pipes in Flint.

Flint resident Quincy Murphy wants to recall Snyder for “failing to protect the health and safety” of the citizens of Flint.

But Dave Murray, Gov. Rick Snyder’s spokesman, said in a text: “This was related to the concerns about color and odor, and weeks later the state awarded the city a $2 million grant for water infrastructure repairs”.

The state House and Senate have unanimously approved an emergency spending bill to help Flint address its water crisis.