Snyder calls for $30M in state help for Flint water bills

“The public has a right to be outraged”. High lead levels have been detected not only in tap water but also in blood-lead levels in children. The memo was not formally delivered to state environmental officials until November – after the state had begun taking actions to address the lead problem, Creagh said.

Some analysts have said Flint’s water crisis points to underlying concerns about privatization of water and government in the emergency management system.

Kildee, in his testimony before the committee, said the state has a “moral” responsibility to fix the city’s damaged infrastructure, which could cost hundreds of millions dollars, if not more than a billion. The corrosive water lacked adequate treatment and caused lead to leach from old pipes in homes and schools.

The removal of “poison pipes” is no doubt the most viable solution to Flint’s ongoing water crisis.

For almost two years, the simple act of drinking a glass of water has been fraught with danger in Flint, Michigan.

Countering the Obama administration official, Keith Creagh, director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, acknowledged that the state should have required Flint to treat its water, but said the EPA “did not display the sense of urgency that the situation demanded”, allowing the problem to fester for months.

A group of Flint residents had traveled to the nation’s capital to watch the hearing; so many people were expected the committee arranged for an overflow room where those who could not get into the main hearing room could watch the proceedings. The hearing is the first since the lead contamination crisis in Flint erupted past year.

Marc Edwards, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech who helped uncover the pollution, said he’d been warning the EPA for years of the weakness of federal laws meant to prevent such disasters from happening.

Michigan National Guard members help to distribute water to a line of residents in their cars in Flint, Michigan January 21, 2016.

“The problem is that, today, we are missing the most critical witness of all: the governor of the state of Michigan, Rick Snyder”.

“There’s a good argument to be made that if government has failed (residents) at every level, and is somehow involved in this, that maybe we should consider that”, Meekhof said.

“A large public water system switching from purchasing treated water to using an untreated water source is highly unusual”, said Beauvais.

Del Toral also declined to attend the committee hearing, but Chaffetz said he excepted the decision because Del Toral is now carrying out work on the ground in Flint.

Lead exposure is unsafe for all people but can have devastating effects on children, irreversibly harming their brain development, lowering their intelligence, stunting growth and leading to aggressive and anti-social behavior.

Ray Holman, legislative liaison for the United Auto Workers Local 6000, the biggest state employee union, called Snyder’s letter a “little disingenuous”, saying workers often are dissuaded from “thinking outside the box” and speaking up, and have been disciplined for not closely following policy.

Earley only implemented the plan to change the city’s water source that others had put in place before he started, Bolden said.

At the time, Hedman apologized to Flint Mayor Dayne Walling for the leak and said “it would be premature to draw any conclusions based on that draft”. Cummings (Md.) was upset that Snyder didn’t appear, and he alleged it was a political calculation on the part of Republicans running the committee not to invite him. He said efforts to shift blame to the EPA are an unwarranted distraction from what was mostly a decision ultimately made by Snyder’s appointees.