House amends Safe Drinking Water Act after Flint water crisis

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

As soon as the water samples were tested and the results verified, Snyder announced the results at a press conference in Flint on October 8, where he also announced the state would help reconnect the city to water from Detroit.

The EPA did not notify the public for months after learning that MI officials were not treating Flint’s water. His legislation includes investments in infrastructure repairs, wrap-around services for families and children exposed to lead, economic development support for the city and long-term health monitoring for Flint families.

In his speech to legislators, Snyder, a Republican, again referred to the situation in Flint as a “crisis” and requested money for projects including water sampling, nutritional programs, crisis counseling and new pipes in schools and day care facilities. This cynical, self-serving move came a full year before nationwide public outrage finally forced Snyder to provide safe bottled water to the regular people of Flint.

Adding to controversy over what top officials knew and when regarding Flint’s water crisis and resulting health epidemic, emails obtained by the Flint Journal suggest that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder told state officials to suppress lead testing results, both from local health officials and the community, while they figured out how to present the information to the public. Former Flint Mayor Dayne Walling also has been invited, as well as Miguel Del Toral, an EPA water expert who wrote a June 2015 memo about lead problems in Flint that was not made public for months.

“Chelsea runs the Clinton Foundation and she’s well connected, so I’m hoping that she shares her story with her well-funded friends and gets us the resources we need, because we know that government will not cover everything”, she said.

“We have performed over one hundred and sixty lead tests throughout the city since switching over to the Flint River and remain within the EPA standards”.

“I implore you, on behalf of the city of Flint, to help us restore our city”, Weaver said.

Snyder, who declined an invitation to appear before that committee, has been widely criticized for being slow to recognize the scope of Flint’s problems after a 2014 switch of its drinking water supply to the Flint River. Snyder persuaded the Legislature to foot part of the bill for the city’s reconnection to the Detroit system, and the Legislature has also approved $28 million for emergency spending.

Cox says the issue hasn’t impacted the department’s ability to fight fires.

Lower-funded districts would get more, while better-funded districts would get less of an increase. “Drink the water, Rick!”, they shouted, and: “Fix the pipes!” “I’m asking Gov. Snyder and the state to partner on this effort”.

“We’re here to investigate what possible crimes there are, anything [from] involuntary manslaughter or death that may have happened to some young person or old person because of this poisoning, to misconduct in office”, said Todd Flood, special counsel for the state attorney general’s office who is in charge of the investigation.