County prosecutor gets green light to investigate Flint water crisis

Officials at the local, state and federal levels have resigned in connection with Flint’s water crisis.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday asks a federal judge to force MI and the city of Flint to replace all lead pipes in Flint’s water system to ensure residents have a safe drinking supply.

It was the latest in a series of events tied to the city’s switch in 2014 from the Detroit municipal water system to corrosive Flint River water while under state emergency management to save money. The complaint cites a part of the act which requires the EPA to “implement an “optimal” treatment program to reduce corrosion of lead in piles and solder” and that water systems must conduct monitoring for lead in household tap water.

The plaintiffs are the Natural Resources Defense Council, American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, Concerned Pastors for Social Action and resident Melissa Mays.

Snyder also announced Wednesday that a close adviser, Flint native Rich Baird, would run a new state office in Flint.

State and federal government officials who are engage in their duties are immune from private lawsuits by a doctrine known as sovereign immunity.

She also touched on the issue of residents’ water bills. A state plan to save $15 million on Flint’s water bills may now cost $1.5 billion in clean-up, Moore said in his online petition for help from President Barack Obama.

“(The people of Flint) were let down by all levels of government and that includes city, state and federal”, said state Rep. Lee Chatfield, R-Levering. To add insult to injury, Flint is still charging residents for contaminated water. They could not immediately be reached for comment.

Flint taps were once supplied with treated water from Lake Huron, but were switched over to be supplied by the Flint River in April of 2014.

In the meantime, the state government is providing bottled water and water filters for residents.

Flint has since returned to buying water from Detroit.

City Manager Harry Black issued a memo Wednesday to Cincinnati City Council addressing water safety.

The focus of the committee, the governor’s office said, is to make recommendations about the health of residents exposed to lead and determine potential upgrades to infrastructure. It alleges the city is not providing comprehensive, reliable information to identify locations with lead lines and is under-testing homes with a higher risk of lead exposure.

One difficulty officials are facing, Snyder said, is that lead might no longer show up in a blood test after time has passed.

Snyder compared Flint’s unemployment struggles and other economic woes to what people in Detroit have endured in recent years, and he said his administration is responsible for improvements there.

“All eyes are on Detroit and Flint now: We live in a developed country, developed cities, but we’re living in Third World conditions”, Beulah Walker, chief coordinator of the nonprofit Detroit Water Brigade, which gives out bottled water to those who need it, told the Detroit News.

Attorneys representing victims of the Flint water fiasco in a class action lawsuit served Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) with subpoenas on Monday.