We spoke to them after Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder testified for the first time before Congress about lead poisoning in the water supply of Flint, Michigan, which began after he appointed an unelected emergency manager who switched the source of the city’s drinking water to the corrosive Flint River.
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A state task force says most of the responsibility for the Flint water crisis rests with Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality.
The task force called on lawmakers to review the emergency manager law and propose changes that can allow local governments to act as a check on state appointees.
The panel … said what happened in Flint is “a story of government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction, and environmental injustice”.
“Though it may be technically true that all levels of government failed”, the task force said, “the state’s responsibilities should not be deflected”.
“The consequences of underfunding”, it said, “include insufficient and inefficient responses to public health concerns, which have been evident in the Flint water crisis”. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, said the committee’s next meeting, on March 29, will be held on the Flint campus of U-M, where it plans to hear testimony from Weaver, former Mayor Dayne Walling, county health department officials, current officials from the Flint Water Treatment Plant, and local citizens, including water activist LeeAnne Walters.
Kildee said the contamination of Flint’s water can be traced to the state wanting to save money.
Our nation continues to marshal support for the people of Flint, Michigan, as the city rebuilds after its water supply was found to be contaminated with extremely unsafe amounts of lead. Emergency managers made key decisions that contributed to the crisis, from the use of the Flint River to delays in reconnecting to DWSD once water quality problems were encountered. In the interim, Flint is seeking assistance to bring clean drinking water to its children. After months of the Snyder attempting to deflect blame, a new report concludes that there was a failure at all levels of government, starting with the governor.
Snyder said numerous task force recommendations were already being implemented by the state.
The report also points a finger at the state-appointed emergency managers who were appointed to run Flint by Snyder due to the city’s precarious financial situation. Police have stated that besides documents related to the water in Flint, other unrelated documents were scattered across the room.
Former emergency manager Ed Kurtz authorized the use of the river as the water source, the report states.
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“There’s a special place in hell for actions like this”, said Rep. Earl Carter, R-GA, referring to the failure to alert Flint residents about lead problems. Without the checks and counsel provided by such professional advisers as EM Kevyn Orr used in Detroit, an EM appointed by the governor is more likely to make bad calls akin to those handed down in Flint. Rather, the report lays the Flint disaster at the governor’s feet.
