Snyder: Key Flint sites show mostly low lead; issues remain

Rick Snyder will release thousands of emails his staff sent related to Flint’s water supply switch that led to the city’s water being contaminated with lead.

That way we can bathe, shower, and brush our teeth without fear of lead contamination or any other unhealthy contaminants in the Flint system.

“I won’t rest until every service line is removed”, she said. “This is an important step toward returning confidence in government”.

Kaufman stresses that while the project is a full compilation of available data, the records — compiled from a 1984 survey — don’t always indicate the types of pipes used. To date, an estimated 8,000 children have been exposed to lead.

Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, who will lead the panel, says it is not an investigatory unit, and will likely not need subpoena power. The estimates do not include vacant properties. Kaufman’s team analyzed Flint’s handwritten records, paper maps, and scanned images to create a digital database of lead pipes.

Also on Tuesday, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof and House Speaker Kevin Cotter, both Republicans, announced the creation of a joint committee to review the Flint water crisis.

Under Michigan legislation, the governor’s office is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

In January, accompanying the release of the 2014 and 2015 Flint emails, Snyder wrote that he was making the documents public in the “spirit of transparency and accountability”.

Democrats and open-government groups have pressured him to also disclose his office’s emails from 2012 and 2013, when emergency managers he appointed to run the city considered and approved the water switch.

Michigan’s Legislature passed a bill Tuesday to give Flint residents $30 million to help offset their water bills.

Weaver asked state lawmakers to approve $25 million dollars for pipe replacement and she’s still at odds with the governor over how to proceed.

Schornack said, “The issue has totally spun out of the governor’s control”, and if a recall question makes it onto the ballot, “he’s dead”, the Freep reports. That’s 6.7 percent. About 140 homes had levels above 100 ppb and 19 were above 1,000 ppb. The number of homes with very high lead levels is unusual and needs to addressed immediately, but the overall number of 6.7 percent above the action level is well within the federal limit of 10 percent.

“As of today, we don’t have any financial support from the (Democratic) party or from a union”, Bullock said.

The city of Flint is on track to get new heads of its police and fire departments.