In collaboration with his charity, The Robin Hood Project, and a MI water company, the 35-year-old Compton rapper donated $1 million ($500,000 of his own money) to provide clean water for the city’s residents.
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Kurtz’s successor as Flint’s emergency manager, Darnell Earley (now emergency manager of Detroit’s schools), made the fateful decision to use treated water from the Flint River as the city’s water supply starting in 2014 while the pipeline was being completed – even though Detroit was willing to continue providing high-quality water under a short-term contract.
Environmental and civil rights groups want a federal judge to order the prompt replacement of all lead pipes in Flint’s water system to ensure that residents have a safe drinking supply, a demand that Gov. Rick Snyder said on Wednesday might be a long-term option but not an immediate one. Snyder said work is being done to find lead service lines, to be followed by a cost calculation for replacing them. In doing so, Moore overlooked the actual circumstances of the case and the Democrat-led mismanagement that caused Flint’s water problems in the first place. It’s different from the class action lawsuits that have already been filed, because it’s not seeking monetary damages. The federal complaint was filed today by the NRDC, the ACLU of Michigan, Concerned Pastors for Social Action, and Flint resident Melissa Mays.
■Ensuring the city has the “technical, managerial and financial capacity” to safely transition from its current water source, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, to the newly formed Karegnondi Water Authority some time later this year.
The suit alleges that in addition to failing to properly treat the water, the state and city violated the requirements of federal law in the way they tested lead levels in city drinking water and in the way they reported the results of that testing.
The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Rick Pluta reports on Governor Snyder cancelling his trip to the Middle East.
The Michigan Civil Rights Commission said Tuesday it will investigate whether discrimination played a role in Flint’s water problems as the national leader of the NAACP said the residents of Flint may have been ignored because many are minorities.
Another $8 million will cover the cost of bottled water being given to residents until the water is declared safe to drink.
The embattled governor announced a series of new actions to address the water crisis, which has spawned two criminal investigations and a federal emergency declaration.
As Flint, Michigan, grapples with a water crisis, Cincinnati City Councilman Christopher Smitherman is calling for the city to test 16,000 water pipes that are lined with lead.
Snyder’s Flint Water Advisory Task Force said in a letter to Snyder on Friday that the state needs to accelerate its efforts in “re-establishing a reliable, trusted potable water system in Flint”.
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The commission voted 7-0 to conduct three public hearings on the water crisis in Flint, which U.S. Census figures show is about 55% African-American. The city opted instead for the promising – and significantly cheaper – new regional system drawing water from Lake Huron.
