The governor filled a few jugs of filtered Flint tap water this week and pledged to drink it for 30 days to show it’s safe.
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Last month, Snyder told House lawmakers the drinking water crisis was the result of failures by the local, state and federal governments.
Attorney General Bill Schuette says he has a major announcement to make this afternoon about the investigation he has commissioned into the Flint Water Crisis. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.
“It’s a good first step, but it’s a small step”, Flint resident Melissa Mays said of the criminal charges.
A news conference planned for Wednesday will feature a Genesee County prosecutor and the heads of the special counsel, NBC News reported.
Though Flint’s water supply is “definitely on its path to recovery”, continued concern among residents about lead contamination and other issues hinders the cleanup of the system’s network of corroded pipes, according to the Virginia Tech researcher who blew open the MI city’s water crisis. They’re reporting one worker from the Flint water treatment plant and two employees from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality will face charges.
Outside experts have also suggested a link between the river and a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak.
“I was asked to do this by a lot of residents, by the press, so I’m just following through on what I was asked to do”, he said of drinking and cooking with filtered Flint water. There were at least 91 cases, including 12 deaths, across Genesee County, which contains Flint, during a 17-month period.
The state and city are now treating the pipes with higher levels of phosphates in an effort to build up a protective coating that will prevent lead from further leaching. “Plaintiffs’ allegations are addressed by regulations that have been promulgated” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under federal water law, O’Meara said.
Among those to be charged is a city of Flint official who signed a document saying the homes Flint used to test tap water under the federal Lead and Copper Rule all had lead service lines – a statement investigators allege was false.
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This all started two years ago when the city of Flint tried to save money on water bills and began taking supply from the Flint River.
