Michigan governor says to request another $195 million for Flint water

Flint resident Sarah Truesdail holds her daughter Gabriella Venegas, 5, as she screams out with tears rolling down her face while a health official pricks her finger with a needle for a free lead test on M…

“It is incomprehensible to me that (seven) members of the Flint City Council would want to send more than $12 million a year to the system serving Southeast Michigan, even if Flint rate payers could afford it. (Lake Huron) water from Detroit is no safer than water from Flint”, Ambrose said at the time, according to The Journal.

The proposed appropriation comes on top of $37 million in emergency funding from supplemental budget actions. Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials have acknowledged they made a mistake when they failed to require needed corrosion-control chemicals to be added to the water. Snyder also plans to call for $165 million in funding for infrastructure needs across MI in the 2016-17 budget.

MI is one of just two states with a blanket exemption for the governor’s office to the Freedom of Information Act.

Federal regulators say MI officials ignored the EPA’s advice to treat Flint water for corrosion-causing elements past year and delayed for months before telling the public about the health risks.

Last month, Snyder released his personal emails from 2014 and 2015 pertaining to Flint, but not the correspondence among his staff.

Asked whether Flood was referring to the deaths from legionnaires’ when he suggested an involuntary manslaughter charge, a spokeswoman said the charge was only hypothetical, as there hasn’t yet been a proven connection between legionnaires’ and the water source.

“We’re going to back to the beginning, when they started talking about getting off the Detroit system and getting their own water system, and take it right up to today”, Arena said.

Snyder has said he has no plans to fund pipe removal and is relying on experts who say the addition of phosphates to the water supply will build up a protective coating on corroded pipes and stop lead from leaching out.

For that reason, Murray said the governor declined an invitation to appear before a U.S. House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.

Mayor Karen Weaver has a unveiled a new plan to get Flint moving forward.

A stunning video was posted on Reddit last night, showing a very articulate Flint resident describing the water situation in her city. United Way of Genesee County has been at the forefront of distributing thousands of filtration pitchers, faucet mount filters, replacement cartridges and truckloads of water to underserved populations to address immediate needs in Flint Michigan.

The United Way says it’s outlining a framework that will provide children with at-home care, nutritional assistance and early childhood and supplemental education.

Gov. Rick Snyder speaks about the Flint water crisis during a press conference on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016, at City Hall in downtown, Flint, Mich.

The lawsuit alleges the toddler experienced “serious physical and emotion injury due to her exposure to the toxic water”.

“That’s the first thing she (the mayor) brought to the nation’s attention – how bad the water was in the city and how she wanted to solve it and make it appropriate for using again”, said Shawn Conliffe, who has lived in Flint all of her adult life.