Jeb Bush praises MI governor for post-Flint leadership

Vehicles make their way through downtown Flint, Mich., Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016.

In addition, water resources sites and the Michigan National Guard are also aiding in distribution efforts by giving bottled water to residents.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is set to provide an update on his investigation into the water crisis in Flint.

Ariana Hawk is the mother of 2-year-old, Sincere “Sunny” Smith.

Downplaying and covering up clear evidence of lead in the drinking water, dismissing activists’ concerns, and making fun of Flint residents whose children are exposed to lead poisoning, Gov. Snyder and other state officials have created a textbook case of environmental racism.

Lead-laced water supply has plagued Flint, a city of 99,000 residents 60 miles northwest of Detroit, since April 2014.

The Flint Water Advisory Task Force says its recommendations are more detailed and comprehensive than what the EPA ordered.

Snyder suspended without pay two staffers of the Department of Environmental Quality for their role in the 2014 switch of Flint’s water source from the Detroit water system to the long-polluted Flint River.

It has also emerged that the water was improperly treated and lacked cheap corrosion controls that could have prevented lead levels in the water from skyrocketing. At the same time the EPA was turning a blind eye to Flint, the EPA was cranking up regulations giving it even broader powers over the nation’s water system. He described the problem in Flint as an “inexcusable situation with respect to the drinking water there”.

Snyder says the state will move quickly to determine “the best way to achieve the results”.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has been called upon by angry residents of Flint, Michigan, and others to resign over the alleged cover-up of lead-contaminated water which people unknowingly drank and bathed in over the course of several months. Snyder spokesman Dave Murray didn’t reveal how the PR team will be paid.

“The tragedy that we’re seeing in Flint is a manmade crisis”, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said at his briefing on Thursday, noting that federal disasters can legally only be declared only for a natural disaster or an “act of God”. While we continue to review this data, we have stated publicly that Hurley conducted their analysis in a much different way than we do at the department.

The EPA and the state environmental department had evidence since at least January 2015 that there were elevated lead levels in Flint’s drinking water, but did nothing to warn the public.

Also Friday, State Representative Sheldon Neeley accused the Snyder administration of hiding some of the governor’s correspondence on the issue.

The unnamed DEQ employees who were suspended Friday pending investigations work in the agency’s drinking water division, state spokesman Kurt Weiss said. Growing evidence of toxic water was ignored – some allege it was covered up – by state and local officials, as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

While state officials-especially the state-appointed emergency manager-are most directly to blame, EPA officials played down warnings about water problems for months, leaked emails have shown.