High levels of lead have been detected in the impoverished city’s water since officials switched from the Detroit municipal system and began drawing from the Flint River as a cost-saving measure in April 2014. Wyant resigned in December over the growing crisis in Flint.
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It’s no secret the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, is an administrative screw-up of massive proportions, but when Gov. Rick Snyder released 274 pages of internal emails to the public on Wednesday, one passage stuck out as especially damning. He has previously apologized for regulatory failures and for an underwhelming initial response and on Tuesday outlined a timeline of the “catastrophe” dating to 2013, and blamed it on failures at the federal, state and local level.
“Flint is a public health catastrophe, as the meticulous research of Virginia Tech and Hurley Medical Center Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha clearly shows”, she said.
Obama declared an emergency – qualifying the city for $5 million – but determined it is not a disaster based on the legal requirement that such additional relief is intended for natural events, fires, floods or explosions.
The water was brown, and it smelled and tasted bad.
October 8: Snyder calls for Flint to go back to using water from Detroit’s system again.
Snyder’s staff also noted his signing of Medicaid expansion, which provided health care coverage to 600,000 low-income adults.
“Of course, some of the Flint people respond by looking for someone to blame instead of working to reduce anxiety”.
“The real responsibility rests with the county, city and KWA (a local water authority)” the Sep.
He also said the state had to continue to try to help, continuing: “We’re throwing as much assistance as possible at the lead problem as regardless of what the levels, explanations or proposed solutions, the residents and particularly the poor need help to deal with it”.
The agency also said it would begin sampling and analyzing lead levels and would make the results public. Most have been forced to boil water or switch to bottled water. “And that’s part of the problem”. Class-action lawsuits by Flint residents will attempt to prove the culpability of government officials.
January 19: Snyder devotes most of his annual State of the State speech to the emergency, saying he failed Flint residents.
“Michael has decades of experience with municipal finances, and specifically the city of Flint’s budget”, Snyder said in the statement. The Michigan House approved the funding request Wednesday.
Just in case you hadn’t already noticed, the town of Flint, Michigan, is enduring a major water crisis at the moment. In an email to The Post, EPA spokeswoman Melissa Harrison said that the agency did not release the memo in question because it “contained confidential personal and enforcement-sensitive information”, but that it was “immediately circulated” to the regional team “that was working to require Flint to implement corrosion control” last summer.
Even President Barack Obama seemed frustrated. Now families fear for their health and especially for the future of their children, who can develop learning disabilities and behavior problems from lead exposure.
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“That shouldn’t happen anywhere”, Obama told CBS television. “And what we’ll figure out now moving forward is what can the federal government’s role be in assisting people, for example children in particular, that might have been exposed to lead”. She said residents were reeling from “broken trust” due to the water crisis. “It actually drops your IQ”, she says. “Everybody should have clean water. But no one should have to pay for poisoned tap water”, said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch.
