Michigan Officials Shipped Clean Water To Employees Before Helping Citizens Of Flint

Progressive Michigan argued government officials – namely, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder – were protecting their own employees before looking out for Flint’s citizens.

A MI legislative leader from Flint says Gov. Rick Snyder’s suggestion that the public also could drink from water coolers supplied to workers in a state office building is “insulting”.

Specifically, the note said it was providing coolers of purified water to employees of the state office building in Flint in order to provide them with an option.

“It just shows that the reaction was to take care of the state workers while they were still telling Flint residents your water is safe, go ahead and drink it”, Scott said.

It wasn’t until October that state officials admitted there was a problem with lead in the city’s water supply.

Melissa Mays, a resident who launched the local advocacy group Water You Fighting For, painted a bleak picture of life in Flint, where people are afraid to bathe their children and many residents have their water turned off – even though they’re still paying for it.

“This is a state responsibility”, Michigan Sen.

Problems began to arise after the city switched its water source from the Detroit system to the Flint River as a cost-saving measure in April 2014. But Reverend Allen Overton, a Flint resident and member of Concerned Pastors for Social Action, said a $US500 million surplus in Michigan’s state budget could be made readily available to get the job done.

In a brazen act last week, the agency sent an order to the state of Michigan and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to inventory all lead service lines in the city – of which there are an unknown number – and make a public website with the results of water samples from those lines. Another state spokesman had earlier said it was provided continuously.

It’s the second round of state aid for the city since the crisis was confirmed in the fall.

At the federal level, legislation to address Flint’s water crisis was also likely as the U.S. Senate takes up a bipartisan bill on energy policy. Ted Cruz said the water emergency was a failure at every level of government and some of his MI volunteers handed out water in Flint.

Flint residents are now warned to drink only filtered or bottled water because of lead contamination.

The state spending bill includes $500,000 for outside experts to study the integrity of the water system infrastructure. The corrosive water lacked adequate treatment and caused lead to leach from old pipes – and there has since been much discussion about who should be held accountable.

Monetary donations can be made to the Michigan Conference at 320 W. St. Joseph Hwy., Lansing, Michigan, 48933, and marked “Flint Water Crisis”.

Barnhill says the residents’ immediate needs are important but that long-term opportunities in Flint will also be explored, such as small business assistance.