Flint mayor says $55 million needed to replace lead pipes

Rick Snyder is interviewed after visited a church that’s distributing water and filters to its predominantly Latino parishioners in Flint, Mich. Snyder will propose spending $195 million more to address Flints water crisis and another $165 million updating infrastructure across the state in response to lead contamination overwhelming the city.

The plan to replace all the pipes will cost the city $55 million, on top of all the other fees it has to pay as a result of the crisis.

When a legislator asked about the potential for more federal aid for Flint — Congress is debating the issue — Snyder said: “We could use more help from Washington” but later declined to specify exactly how much. “…We’ll let the investigations determine who is to blame for Flint’s water crisis, but I’m focused on solving it”.

Soon after the switch to Flint River water, the city had boil-water advisories because of high E.coli bacteria levels.

“We are now designing an optimization plan with the engineering firm that will be presented to the DEQ and upon approval we expect to have it implemented by January 2016”, Croft wrote, adding that according to the DEQ, some cities have taken years to devise such a plan.

Flint separated itself from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department in April 2014 at the direction of the emergency manager for the city. Following the debut of her politically-charged “Formation” music video and a blockbuster Super Bowl Halftime Show, the global superstar is giving back to a very important group of people-the children of Flint, Michigan.

“We’re going to get the lead out of Flint”, said Weaver.

“We put in all new windows, encapsulated the house in sheet rock, put on new trim, rented a Hepa vacuum [to remove allergens] and vacuumed the entire yard, put in new carpet and sanded the hardwood floors”.

As more water advisories were given telling residents to boil their tap water, different reasons were cited.

Pipe replacements could be starting as early as this month. It is unclear whether this money will be allocated to Weaver’s plan. The mayor said the proposal would require funding from the MI legislature or the US Congress. 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…

After months of downplaying reports of lead in the water and in the blood of Flint children, the state acknowledged a problem around October 1.

Flint’s water troubles, concerns about other aging water infrastructure and the Detroit school’s district dire financial outlook – it needs a $720 million infusion of cash over a decade to avoid bankruptcy, according to Snyder – overshadowed more nuts-and-bolts budget details this year, such as funding for education, municipalities and workforce development. Around half of the service lines in Flint are made with lead so when the poorly-treated water came rushing through the pipes, the water supply was poisoned.

MI attorney general Bill Schuette on Tuesday also called on lawmakers to amend the governor’s exemption from the state’s open-records law and thus force the release of all internal documents related to Flint water.