Michigan Governor To Provide Bottle Water After Declaring State Of Emergency

Four days after declaring a state of emergency over a water crisis in Flint, Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder is providing the city with bottled water and other supplies, Snyder’s office announced Saturday. Snyder’s office said it had teamed up with local officials to begin providing free bottled water, filters and testing kits at five fire stations around the city. But the city returned to Detroit water in October after testing detected increased lead levels in residential water supplies and in children’s blood. Though Mayor Karen Weaver called that a positive step, she said the change did not undo corrosion damage from the river water that caused pipes to leach lead. And then, yesterday, in as smarmy and useless a press conference as I’ve ever seen, Snyder stood with the mayor of Flint and took a “looking forward, not back” approach to his own insensitive bungling that, in a more just world, would have had him ducking tomatoes, and that, in Iraq, would have had him chased from the room under a barrage of footwear.

And as Michigan Radio reports, the coordinator of the state response to the crisis says “social workers will make door-to-door visits to make sure homes have water filters correctly installed, and children are getting the services they need”. He cites “major issues” at the Department of Environmental Quality, whose director recently resigned.

MI officials have yet to ask the federal government for emergency assistance, but the White House’s chief of staff told Meet the Press they are keeping a close eye on the situation.

The council will be asked to create an incident action plan, review recommendations made by the independent Flint Water Task Force, establish routine protocols for communications at the local, executive and legislative levels, make recommendations regarding the health impacts of the affected population, and assess the status of infrastructure and determine feasible actions for upgrading Flint’s water system.

And Flint’s economically challenged citizens are still being billed for water that authorities say they shouldn’t consume or even use to brush their teeth. Childhood lead exposure is estimated to contribute to about 600 000 new cases of children developing intellectual disabilities every year. The Flint public health emergency has also been featured prominently in the New York Times and on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show”. Now, Flint residents demand Governor Snyder’s full responsibility, because he didn’t react in time after he learned that Flint’s tap water had been contaminated.

The new 17-member committee will include representatives from the state, Genesee County, the City of Flint and experts on particular subjects, Snyder said.

“To date, federal assistance has not been requested by the state”.