Brad Wurfel, then-spokesman for the state’s Department of Environmental Quality, sent an email on March 13, 2015 to Harvey Hollins, who is Snyder’s director of urban initiatives. Upton chairs the energy panel while Pallone is the senior Democrat.
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“What happened in Flint was avoidable and never should have happened”, said Joel Beauvais, acting chief of the EPA’s water office.
Emails between MI state officials show they knew about an uptick in Legionnaires disease and that it could be linked to problems with Flint water many months before Governor Rick Snyder said he received information of the outbreak.
In addition to this class action, representatives in Washington DC are trying to get funds for the people of Flint. It wasn’t until friends told her there was something wrong that she made the connection between the switch the city made in the source of its water supply in April 2014, and her thinning hair and the painful sores she’d been getting all over her body. In January, it was reported that the state hired two attorneys to probe what had happened to give Flint citizens answers. Lead causes brain damage and other health problems especially for children.
Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said he found reports of EPA’s mismanagement troubling.
Marc Edwards, a professor of environmental and water engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, said this was the third time that he’s testified before Congress about the lax regulation of water quality. Bolden said he informed the committee that Earley would be willing to appear on another date, although Earley might invoke his right to remain silent.
“He was relying on the experts”, Bolden said.
Snyder has apologized repeatedly for the state’s role in the crisis. He was testifying at the first hearing on Capitol Hill since the lead contamination crisis made national news previous year.
Melanie McElroy, executive director of Common Cause in Michigan, said the latest disclosure illustrates why the governor’s office exemption from the Michigan Freedom of Information Act must be removed.
The issue started when Flint officials voted to save money by getting their water supply from the Flint River.
The water comes from AQUAhydrate, a bottled water brand partly owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs and Mark Wahlberg that pledged to donate 1 million bottles to the city. How could any of the government officials in Flint, Michigan not have seen this coming? He says it’s another example of the Snyder “looking at this from an overly technical view as opposed to a human view”. He met with Republican leaders in the GOP-controlled Legislature on Tuesday to discuss the proposal, which will require lawmakers’ approval.
MI has approved $37 million in emergency funding for Flint for the current fiscal year.
The aid would cover the estimated portion of residential customers’ utility bills for water that has been or will be used for drinking, cooking, bathing and washing hands. After repeatedly assuring residents the water was safe, the state had to back pedal and concede the tests they were using on the water was faulty and it was in fact unsafe.
The Republican-led Legislature would have to approve the plan.
“The delays in implementing the actions needed to treat the drinking water and in informing the public of ongoing health risks raise very serious concerns”, he said.
Creagh said in a release that he met Monday with an official from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and that staff from both agencies discussed how to work together to make the best use of data being collected.
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“I don’t care whether it’s the EPA, whether it’s local, whether it’s the state”, said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
