Gov. Snyder signs emergency funding bill for Flint

Mother Jones reported January 28 that according to newly released emails, MI officials began shipping clean water to its employees before publicly acknowledging the city’s water contamination crisis.

Caleb Buhs, a spokesman for the agency that manages state buildings, says water coolers were introduced at the State Office Building after Flint flunked some drinking water standards that weren’t related to lead. The state told workers they could use the water cooler or drinking fountains. Progress Michigan says “While residents were being told to relax and not worry about the water, the Snyder administration was taking steps to limit exposure in its own building”. Michigan DEQ Director Dan Wyant resigned in December after acknowledging officials failed to require the city to use needed corrosion control chemicals when they switched the source of their supply to Lake Huron water treated by Detroit to Flint River water treated at the Flint water treatment plant.

This left MI children with high levels of lead in their blood.

Michigan’s state senate could approve $28 million Thursday to address the toxic water crisis in Flint. The emergency spending bill includes money for more bottled water and filters and services to monitor for developmental delays in young children.

Bruch told the Adventist Review that she was scrambling to find volunteers beyond Flint who were willing to assist with the Adventist effort to distribute 10 pallets of water until new water-lines are expected to be in place around May.

We know last January the department of technology, management and budget offices installed water coolers because employees had concerns about the city’s water quality. Thankfully, environmental and civil rights groups are working to help Flint residents and they have even filed a lawsuit on residents’ behalf, but the people of Flint can’t wait through a legal battle for the help that they desperately need now. Members of the EPA task force have come forward alleging that testing in many cities is being gamed to make the water appear safer than it is.

The governor’s spokesman Dave Murray said the federal legislation is being reviewed but declined to say if Snyder supports it. Snyder is “always grateful for support from our federal partners”, he said.

Edwards, a professor from Virginia Tech, is the water expert who first warned Flint River water was highly corrosive, causing lead to leach into the drinking water supply.

Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, a Flint Democrat, said the announcement about the high lead readings showed that having federal officials involved in Flint has led to “a more transparent and effective response”.

Included in the email thread found by Progressive Michigan is a message from district engineer with Detroit’s Department of Environmental Quality to Stephen Busch, the district supervisor, acknowledging regulator’s water quality concerns. The city notified water customers at the time that it was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act but described the water as safe to drink.

It wasn’t until September, after Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha – a pediatrician at Flint’s Hurley Medical Center – and others raised alarms, that officials began to acknowledge that not was there iron in the city’s tap water, but also alarming amounts of lead.