Former Prosecutor Appointed To Lead Flint Water Investigation

Half of the samples showed no lead contamination, and the highest result was.

“Our water has been messed up for a long time”, said 56-year-old Flint resident Angela Hickmon.

Schuette says Todd Flood, a former assistant prosecutor in Wayne County, will spearhead Schuette’s investigation and serve as special counsel. The average US household of four people uses 350 gallons of water per day for drinking, bathing and washing dishes and clothes, LifeZette noted.

The crisis has been blamed on a failure of government at all levels.

The offer by DWSD raises serious questions about whether Gov. Rick Snyder was lying when he insisted the water switch was motivated by saving money for Flint, which was under the control of a state emergency manager.

What caused the water crisis? Around 40 percent of Flint residents live in poverty, and the average household income is only $25,000. “I think the attorney general needs to appoint somebody truly independent without financial ties to the governor”, Brandon Dillon, the MDP chairman told FOX 17.

They aren’t alone. Founder of Craig’s list Craig Newmark, Sean ‘Diddy; Combs and Mark Wahlberg are all donating money and water. KWA was not expected to be completed until the end of 2016, so the city chose to rely on its backup, the Flint River.

Replacing these buried pipes would be costly in many cases, so chemicals often are added to prevent the plumbing from corroding and leaching lead and other unsafe metals into the drinking water. Many have reported experiencing lesions and rashes from using the water. The river had a reputation for nastiness, and after the April 2014 switch, residents complained their water looked, smelled and tasted amusing. Kurtz’s decision was backed up by city council in a 7-1 vote, but Flint would still have to find an interim source of water while the Lake Huron pipeline was being constructed.

An investigative team helping the people of Flint get answers.

Why wasn’t the lead detected sooner?

As state and local officials continue to sort out logistics of providing water and filtration systems to residents, and Flint residents continue to adjust to living without a reliable water source, no one should have to pay for water that might harm them or their kids.

Their responses to the crisis, the EPA said, were “inadequate to protect public health”.

Marc Edwards, an expert on municipal water quality that led the Virginia Tech study, said that the situation essentially amounts to a cover-up.

He described state laws related to misfeasance or malfeasance by public officials as “low-hanging fruit” in terms of MI statutes that could come into play in the investigation. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. I have never seen this level of arrogance and incompetence. “There was far too much effort to talk about doing testing, to follow protocols, to follow the lead and copper rule and not enough focus on common sense”.

Could the crisis have been prevented?

State Rep. LaTanya Garrett, D-Detroit, is asking U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to open a federal investigation instead.