Snyder plans $30M credit for Flint customers — APNewsBreak

Prosecutors from the FBI joined investigators from the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit told the Detroit Free Press.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday it was joining a criminal investigation of lead-contaminated drinking water in Flint, Michigan, exploring whether laws were broken in a crisis that has captured worldwide attention.

The tap water in Flint, population 99,000, became contaminated after the city switched from the Detroit water system to the Flint River while a pipeline to Lake Huron is under construction.

The F.B.I. has joined the investigation into the Flint water crisis, four months after Michigan Governor Rick Snyder acknowledged that the city’s drinking water contained dangerously high lead levels. However, the “pre-flushing” of faucets the night before water sampling tests can lower the lead content in samples and therefore understate lead contamination from corroded pipes. “It’s important to look at missteps at all three levels of government – local, state and federal – so such a crisis doesn’t occur again”. A final report is expected early this year. Over the next 17 months, multiple McLaren’s patients developed Legionnaires’ disease, with a total of 87 people falling ill.

The notice was issued just days after Flint officials warned water customers of elevated levels of total trihalomethanes (TTHM) in the water supply.

A June 2015 memo by an employee in EPA’s Midwest regional office was not formally delivered to state environmental officials until November – after the state had begun taking actions to address the lead problem, Creagh said.

The contest’s victor, Marseille Allen, a resident of Flint, raised $39,300 and her campaign will receive a $10,000 contribution from GoFundMe.

An independent panel appointed by Snyder has determined that the state Department of Environmental Quality was primarily responsible for the water contamination. Upon doing so, officials did not ensure that corrosion controls were in place to prevent leaching of aged lead service lines.

Snyder and legislators last week enacted $28 million in emergency Flint funding for the current fiscal year, including $3 million to help the Flint Utilities Department with unpaid bills.

The city of Flint is now dealing with a “man-made” disaster after a decision to switch from the Detroit water system to the polluted Flint River left local residents with brown, foul-smelling water.

The committee also didn’t elaborate whether it would hold a hearing on Capitol Hill or in MI, or both as was the case in early 2015 when Congress examined a chemical storage tank spill in West Virginia that released thousands of gallons into the Elk River, contaminating drinking water supplies in Charleston and nearby counties. The others seek financial damages on behalf of residents.