Joel Beauvais, acting water chief for the US Environmental Protection Agency, said MI officials ignored federal advice to treat Flint water for corrosion-causing elements past year and delayed for months before telling the public about the health risks of lead-contaminated water.
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$125,000 to the American Red Cross, which is coordinating relief efforts in Flint and is operating the Volunteer Reception Center for people to help with the distribution of water, water filters, replacement cartridges and water testing kits.
Bolden declined to say Wednesday where Earley was, other than acknowledging that he was not in Washington.
Residents have continued to receive bills-some as high as $200-for the toxic water, as well as notices of impending water shutoffs if they failed to pay. Earley, Flint’s former emergency manager, was issued a subpoena to testify, but didn’t attend the hearing in Washington, D.C.
They include the sacking or forced resignations of some of the officials who directly “managed” the state’s regime of indifference to the health of Flint residents; and the MI state legislature’s unanimous approval of Snyder’s request for an immediate $28 million in emergency state funds for Flint.
As the hearing before the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee got underway on Wednesday, its chairman, U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said he’d turn to federal marshals, if necessary, “to hunt him down” and serve the subpoena on Earley, garnering cheers in the packed hearing room. Even more alarmingly, the effect on children’s intellectual development – on their speech patterns, motor skills, emotional stability and capacity to learn – could either show itself immediately or lay dormant for years.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver is calling for the immediate removal and replacement of aging lead pipes that continue to leach toxins into residents’ household water.
Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder has apologized repeatedly for the state’s role in the crisis.
The aid would cover the estimated portion of residential customers’ utility bills for water that has been or will be used for drinking, cooking or bathing between April 2014 – when the city’s water source was switched – and this spring.
“At this point in time I think we need to make it very clear that we are serious, and if they want a bill we want to help the people of Flint”, Stabenow said. He says it’s another example of the Snyder “looking at this from an overly technical view as opposed to a human view”. The state has allocated almost $39 million in the current budget year to address Flint’s crisis.
The director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Keith Creagh, calls the city’s failure to act in January 2015 a mistake. Close to 100 protesters gathered outside Flint City Hall last Monday, holding signs denouncing city and state officials for poisoning their children.
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Officials haven’t said whether criminal or civil charges might follow the investigation.
