Pastor Jackson added the effects of ingesting lead are irreversible, “stunts” children’s growth, and “inhibits their learning process”.
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To recap the situation briefly: Flint has been run since 2011 by emergency managers appointed by Snyder. And so we are prompted to ask: How would the state have responded to a crisis of such proportions in a community with more wealth and power?
“I have a degree of responsibility”, he said. Snyder pledged Monday that officials would make contact with every household in Flint to check whether residents have bottled water and a filter and want to be tested for lead exposure while his embattled administration works on a long-term solution to the city’s water crisis.
Flint Water Study: New FOIA Shows MDEQ Still Mostly To Blame For Water Crisis and Poor Response – “What is also increasingly clear, is that these same MDEQ employees further abused their power and trust, to derail other well-intentioned attempts by state officials to intervene and protect Flint Residents”. This past weekend, current Flint Mayor Karen Weaver stated that it may take as much as $1.5 billion to fix the city’s water distribution system. Three liaison officers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are in MI to assist with emergency efforts, and the White House says it is closely monitoring the situation, but Snyder has not yet asked for federal financial assistance.
Let’s recap how we reached this point.
Panelist Helene Cooper of the New York Times said water is “so basic” that the Flint catastrophe “really feeds to this distrust people have”.
To date in the city, there have been more than 12,000 water filters distributed, 2,000 blood tests performed, and more than 700 water tests performed.
The news came as churches, local organizations and out-of-state donors worked to provide drinking water – and as criticism mounted from residents who wondered how the governor could seemingly declare a state of emergency without backing it up. That prompted a Snyder apology and the December 29 resignation of DEQ Director Dan Wyant.
The result, of course, is a public health crisis in which countless city residents, including many children, have been poisoned, which leads to severe and long lasting consequences.
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Snyder wouldn’t specify how much money he might need during a visit to Flint.
