Flint mayor announces pipe replacement plan

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said the city will soon begin to replace all of the lead service lines that run from the water mains…

The formation of the committee came on the same day that the Senate voted unanimously to send $30 million to Flint to help with water bills in the city.

Legislative leaders announced the committee Tuesday, as the Senate finalized legislation to grant $30 million in supplemental aid to help pay Flint residents’ water bills. Local and state officials insisted for months the water was safe to drink but reversed course after independent testing discovered unsafe lead levels throughout the system believed to be caused by leaching from lead piping.

In one of the emails, dated September 25, 2015, his then-chief of staff told the governor that “some in Flint are taking the very sensitive issue of children’s exposure to lead and trying to turn it into a political football claiming the departments are underestimating the impacts on the populations and particularly trying to shift responsibility to the state”.

“This will bring total emergency funding dedicated by the state to $70 million, demonstrating our commitment to helping Flint recover and move forward”. About 25,000 are not lead while another 10,000 are unknown and will need to be individually inspected, according to Snyder’s office. Another 15,000 connect to vacant properties. The panel will also examine possible policy actions to prevent similar events elsewhere.

Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, who will lead the panel, says it is not an investigatory unit, and will likely not need subpoena power.

Snyder’s office recently made public some papers containing data on Flint’s drinking water contamination.

“Our plan is to provide credits, covering the cost of water used for drinking, cooking and bathing”, Snyder said in a statement.

Bullock said his goal for the Snyder recall effort is one million signatures, since a certain number of the signatures collected are sure to be rejected, he said.

On budget line items for DPS and the Flint Water Crisis …

On its Twitter account, JM Eagle recently has been posting support for Flint residents – “everyone has the right to clean water” – as well as warnings to other cities – “America is Flint”.