Recently, however, a citizens group called Progress Michigan uncovered internal documents from Snyder’s budget department revealing that in January of past year the agency’s honchos were so alarmed by Flint’s toxin-laced H2O that they supplied coolers filled with bottled water for their employees in the Flint office. “The priorities laid out in this proposal for Flint seem to match the areas we have been stressing for some time – health, education and infrastructure”, Ananich said in a statement.
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“We’re going to restore safe drinking water one house at a time, one child at a time”, she said.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said Snyder’s allocation of $25 million to remove lead pipes falls short of the estimated $55 million price tag. “What I will say is the president and this administration is very supportive of providing what help the federal government can to Flint, and we’re prepared to work with Congress in whatever way they think makes sense on strategy”.
In October, the state changed the city’s drinking water source back from the polluted Flint River to the Detroit water system, but warned that the water is still not safe.
Children with minor lead exposure can have developmental delays, lowered IQs and behavioral problems that require additional educational services.
The state already has directed more than $37 million toward the disaster in Flint, and Governor Snyder is calling for a $195 million plan to help resolve the crisis.
But his efforts have not been enough to stave off criticism.
Detroit Pistons power forward Anthony Tolliver smiles while carrying water to a Flint resident’s vehicle on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, at Fire Station #1, a Water Resource Center, on East 5th St in Flint, Mich. Detroit Pistons Reggie Jackson and Tolliver came to Flint to visit the fire stations handing out water and support The National Guard as part of the ongoing Flint water crisis. McCarthy responded that her agency has many pending Freedom of Information Act requests, and she did not know what the response schedule was. Democrats also call Flint an example of environmental injustice.
Weaver said the meeting helped to “keep Flint in the spotlight” and pressure state and federal officials to do more to help the city.
But the governor’s recommendation includes millions of dollars for projects affecting Michigan’s 47,444 state workers, more than 14,000 of whom live and work in Greater Lansing. He will also start a new infrastructure improvement fund, with $165 million, a sum representing a tiny sliver of the state’s infrastructure fix needs. “Let’s address those issues”.
The state Civil Service Commission would get $1.6 million more in the governor’s budget for “professional, nonpartisan oversight of the state’s workforce”.
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The government in the northern USA state of MI is scrambling to help resolve the toxic water crisis in the city of Flint, where lead has been found in the bloodstreams of more than 200 children. An announcement from Flint said there was no obvious cause but quoted the city’s utilities administrator, Michael Glasgow, expressing suspicions that “our antiquated system” of pipes was to blame.
