Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has activated the National Guard to help distribute bottled water and filters in a city that is confronting a drinking water crisis.
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State emergency officials distribute bottled water Tuesday in Flint, Michigan.
“We plan to go every day this week, and we’ll continue until everyone has safe drinking water”, state police Lt. Dave Kaiser said in his own press conference.
Last week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit said it was investigating the lead contamination of Flint’s water and Snyder declared a state of emergency in Genesee County, which includes Flint, authorizing additional state resources to address health and safety issues.
Residents in Flint have been unable to drink tap water for months after the city switched its supply in 2014 to save money. Lead exposure can impair both mental and physical development in children, sometimes causing “profound and permanent adverse health effects”, according to the World Health Organization. Most alarmingly, a September report found the proportion of infants and children with an above-average level of lead in their blood had almost doubled since the water switch was made.
Scrutiny on Gov. Rick Snyder has intensified as his administration struggles to keep up with the fallout from the Flint water debacle.
Flint police are warning people to be wary of scammers trying to prey on residents amid the city’s drinking water crisis.
The Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday it can’t conclude that the increase is related to the water crisis Flint, where drinking supplies became contaminated with lead after the city began drawing from the Flint River in April 2014.
Sheriff’s Capt. Casey Tafoya says they hope to get to 500 to 600 houses a day.
A handful of National Guard leaders have arrived in Flint and are being briefed on the city’s lead in water crisis this morning, January 13.
The results of the cost-cutting move, implemented by state-appointed emergency manager Darnell Earley, prompted immediate complaints and a boil-water advisory.
“At the State of the Union tonight, I spoke to President Obama and reiterated my call for federal assistance due to the lack of a sufficient response from the state”, Kildee said in a late Tuesday statement.
The Free Press reports state officials downplayed or ignored complaints until October, when the Department of Environmental Quality said it failed to require the addition of needed corrosion control chemicals.
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Snyder, who also has been the target of some criticism, said Monday that the water situation is a “crisis” and last week declared an emergency.
