Flint gets $3M pledge; mayor, attorney general to speak

Democrats said Snyder’s plan is short of what is needed to fully reimburse the water portion of people’s water/sewer bills, and city officials want more to replace old pipes.

Gov. Rick Snyder is expected Wednesday to propose a $195 million plan for new state aid to address Flint’s lead-contaminated water, but it may not help break a congressional logjam on federal aid for the city.

Snyder also proposed expanding a program so state police troopers patrol more MI cities. Up to 15,000 lead pipes could be removed within one year in Flint under the best of conditions by dozens of work crews.

Jeff Hughes, director the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina, highlights four financial facts that have played out in Flint and “which every water and community manager should be thinking about”. But, he said, “It’s more a question of let’s do it in an organized thoughtful, scientific and engineering correct fashion”.

The Republican governor will make his pitch for Flint assistance Wednesday in a more than $55 billion state budget presentation.

In 2001, after Washington, D.C., changed how it disinfected drinking water, lead in tap water at thousands of homes spiked as much as 20 times the federally approved level.

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

The water crisis in Flint came as a result of switching the city’s water source from the Detroit water system to the long-polluted and corrosive Flint River in 2014 in a bid to save money by the state.

The cost-saving measure was put in place until a new supply line to Lake Huron was ready.

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.

So the governor will propose instead using a portion of Michigan’s tobacco settlement, the annual payment the state receives from cigarette manufacturers under a 1998 agreement, Murray told the AP.

A special counsel appointed to investigate the lead contamination of Flint’s water says the harshest criminal charge could include involuntary manslaughter.

Children in particular have been confronted with an increased risk of lead poisoning, which can cause developmental delays and learning disabilities. Flint Administrator Natasha Henderson told city council members Monday, Feb. 8 the recent proposal to give Flint $30 million against the water bills would not be enough, and would only help keep the city’s water fund financially solvent until the end of this year. When they did, officials ripped out lead water pipes feeding 17,600 homes – and discovered three years later that numerous repairs had only prolonged the contamination.

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder – who has apologized for the crisis – has voluntarily released his personal emails from 2014 and 2015 related to the water emergency, but not correspondence among his staff.

Separately, the family of a 2-year-old girl from Flint, who tested high for lead levels, has filed a federal lawsuit against officials in Flint and MI, including Snyder.

The White House has said it’s supportive of efforts in Congress to allocate funding for Flint, even though it has rejected requests to declare a major disaster in the city due to statutes that limit those to natural events, fires or explosions.