Michigan Legislature Passes Emergency Funding For Flint

“It shows what we’ve assumed all along”, said Lonnie Scott, director of Progress Michigan. Angela Wittrock, a spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, said it’s “lunacy” to suggest water delivered to state employees “was also meant for the 100,000 people of Flint who, by the way, were consistently being told their water was fine”.

No one thinks this money this will solve all of Flint’s problems.

The corrosive Flint River caused major damage to water pipes in Flint, resulting in lead poisoning that was shown in September 2015 to have caused dangerously elevated blood lead levels in young children in Flint.

Obama announced $80 million in new funding a week ago to help MI improve its water infrastructure.

Senate Democrats on Thursday proposed $400 million in new emergency federal funding to replace and fix lead-contaminated pipes in Flint, Michigan.

There’s no guarantee the U.S. Congress will OK this money. Sen. He says the funding will provide immediate resources in Flint but is not the end of state assistance.

“It’s time to stand up and recognize that things could have been done differently”, Snyder said before signing the aid legislation Friday.

Most of the homes are located on Menominee Ave. and Cheyenne Ave.in Burton, Mich., which is just outside of Flint. “So let’s do something about it”.

“We’ve had a city in the United States of America where the population, which is poor in many ways and majority African American, has been drinking and bathing in lead-contaminated water and the governor in that state acted as though he didn’t really care”, Clinton said.

Republicans haven’t had much to say about the contamination of Flint’s water and its citizens with lead, caused when corrosion controls weren’t added to water drawn from the Flint River.

Prysby, who had been forwarded an email from other state officials asking whether he would know more about the safety of Flint’s drinking water by March 1, forwarded the email to Stephen Busch, the district supervisor, who on January 22 of this year was suspended without pay for his role in the drinking water catastrophe. “There doesn’t seem to be any unit or level of government that didn’t screw up here”. The poisoned tap water is also suspected of being linked to the outbreak of legionnaires disease that has killed 10 people.

Liesel Gross, the Lehigh County Authority’s chief executive officer, said the agency is monitoring the situation in Flint, but that local water systems are dealing with a different challenge, in part due to local water chemistry.

“We have a crisis in Flint”, Snyder said, echoing comments he’s made the last few weeks. “Why can’t we be drinking clean water too”.

Legislators also voted to extend Michigan’s emergency declaration until mid-April, which coincides with a federal emergency declaration. State-funded health programs have been implemented over the years, but little action or attention was given until Flint’s water crisis gained media attention last month. The governor, though, has insisted he wants to see this through to its resolution.