House passes bill requiring EPA actions on lead-laced water

Dozens of protesters waited outside the House Appropriations room while the Governor was speaking.

The investigators declined to put a timeline on when the inquiry will be completed, but said the scope of potential criminal charges that may be considered include misconduct in office and involuntary manslaughter.

“We’ve been waiting for the state [of Michigan] for nearly two years to come in here and fix this problem”, Weaver said.

Now, Flint officials are hoping members of Congress can find millions to replace the city’s old lead pipes and attend to the health and education needs of children exposed to the heavy metal.

The measure requires the Environmental Protection Agency to notify the public when concentrations of lead in drinking water rise above mandated levels and to create a plan to improve communication between the agency, utilities, states, and consumers.

“The email seems to reflect someone summarizing a discussion at a meeting, and we are unsure what actually was said there”, Snyder Press Secretary Dave Murray said, according to the newspaper report.

Snyder framed his budget request Wednesday as a way to address some of those issues.

It could take even longer to rebuild something more abstract: trust, between citizens and their government.

Among them were Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech professor who first called attention to elevated lead levels in the water, and Laura Sullivan, a water expert from Flint’s Kettering University.

Flint’s water poisoning began in April 2014, when the city stopped receiving its supply from Detroit, instead shifting to water taken directly from the Flint River, a source known to have a high corrosive salt content. Corrosive salts in the water damaged the pipes, which contain lead, causing that material to be released into the water, and contaminating it.

The state also is launching what it calls a “streamlined system” of assisting residences that test high for lead and copper in their water.

The governor’s other big spending priority is the Detroit Public Schools. Students are struggling with basic skills, and with half a billion dollars in debt, insolvency looms.

But, Snyder’s office said Wednesday that information was shared quickly after testing and denied withholding any information.

“If we do not act, this will be an issue resolved in the court system, where the outcomes can be much more devastating to taxpayers of MI and the school districts of this entire state”. That money will come from Michigan’s tobacco settlement, not the school aid fund.

“That’s not accurate”, the Republican said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”.

“It shows his confidence in the food banks ability to be a logistical arm helping the city of Flint as funds become available it’s very important that he has confidence in us so that we can help the residents of Flint”.

“And that’s true of anything – relationships, everything”, she says.

Despite working closely with her community in Flint, Sullivan says she faces a daily fight to keep people’s faith in her since she signed on to work with the government.