Flint mayor seeking help from Washington over water crisis

An attorney representing Flint residents who are suing MI officials over what his legal team calls the city’s “lousy, no-good water” had a message Tuesday for state officials targeted in the lawsuits: “Don’t fight it”.

Of course, as Hillary Clinton explained during Sunday’s debate: “We’ve had a city in the United States of America where the population, which is poor in many ways and majority African-American, has been drinking and bathing in lead-contaminated water”. To definitively change that, those pipes theoretically would need to be replaced.

The other lawsuit was filed Friday in the state Court of Claims.

The governor discussed a timeline of the events that had brought about the lead crisis, which dates back to April 2014, when the town switched its water source to the nearby Flint River in an attempt to save money.

Weaver, in Washington to attend a meeting of mayors, had said previously Tuesday that Obama needed to hear directly about the ongoing health calamity facing her city, and advocated for higher levels of federal support. “I think there are issues at the EPA through the course of all this”, he told National Journal.

Whitmer joined everyone from MI politicians to national celebrities in saying Snyder’s response came too late.

When Flint switched its water supply from the Detroit supply to the Flint River in the spring of 2014 to save money, it was intended as a temporary measure until a new water line to Lake Huron could be built.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, a Republican, has apologized for the state’s handling of the crisis amid growing calls in the last week for him to resign. “A state-appointed emergency financial manager created this problem and the state must step up and do more to help Flint families and children right now”, Kildee said.

“And what that did was it caused lead in some water pipes leading into homes to leach into the water”. Let’s focus in on the solution and how to deal with the damage that was done and help the citizens of Flint and make Flint a stronger community.

“Especially with the youth and the seniors, it is definitely a challenge because when you have seniors whose systems are already compromised to have this, you know, affect them, this is, uhh, it, it, it has devastating parameters to it”, said Ellen Rogers, father lives in Flint.

Snyder used the speech to thank pediatrician Dr Mona Hanna-Attisha of Hurley Children’s Hospital, who was in the audience in the House chamber, and Virginia Tech researcher Marc Edwards, who was not.

For months, state officials brushed off concerns, telling locals that the water was safe to use for bathing and cooking.

It said more closings may occur, while noting all staff members are expected to report to work.

Criticism of the state and federal response has grown in recent days over the crisis in financially strapped Flint about 60 miles northwest of Detroit. “But our people need financial aid and they need it now”.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, was the lead author of a study that found that the incidence of children with elevated lead levels in their blood more than doubled after the water crisis began. On Saturday, Obama signed an emergency declaration but denied Snyder’s request for a disaster declaration based on the legal requirement that such relief is intended for natural events, fires, floods or explosions.

Snyder said, ” They showed there was lead in the water but not at a level required to take action”.

“We’re going to look thoroughly and exhaustively”, he said.