State of emergency in MI over contaminated water

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders calls for the resignation of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder over the state’s handling of the Flint water crisis.

A lawsuit has been raised against both Governor Snyder and the State of MI for allegedly ignoring the city’s water crisis since it started in April 2014.

The emergency declaration will enable $5m of funding to be used to provide water for the city.

“The city of Flint under state-appointed emergency management, nearly bankrupt… switched their water source from Detroit, which was fresh Great Lakes water source, which we’ve been using for over 50 years, to the local Flint River to save money”.

Carolyn Kaster/AP President Obama issued a declaration of emergency over the lead in the water in Flint. He wrote that the governor knew about the lead in Flint’s water long ago and did nothing.

Earlier Thursday, dozens of people – some lugging jugs of dirty water in protest of the water crisis in Flint – criticized Snyder during a demonstration inside the MI state Capitol. “But aid under that designation tends to be far less and far more limited, allowing, for instance, for debris removal and emergency measures, not the kind of permanent work Snyder is seeking to have done replacing water lines with lead in them”.

FEMA has been authorized to provide water, filters, cartridges and other items for 90 days. He pledged this week that officials would contact every household in Flint to check whether residents have bottled water and a filter and whether they want to be tested for lead exposure while his administration works on a long-term solution. That was a flawless storm for that lead to leach out of the pipes into the drinking water and into the bodies of children.

Under a federal disaster declaration, normally reserved exclusively for natural disasters rather than man-made ones such as the one in Flint, much larger sums are available.

But after the switch, residents complained the water looked, smelled and tasted amusing.

Schuette’s announcement comes amid a situation that has seen the governor order the National Guard to help deliver clean water to the city’s almost 100,000 residents 70 miles northwest of Detroit, as experts raise concern about rising levels of poisonous lead in children’s blood and other health concerns.

State officials told anxious residents that everything was fine.