Rick Snyder named a panel of experts Wednesday to help solve the city of Flint’s water crisis, including some of the very critics who forced local, state and federal governments to acknowledge unsafe levels of lead in the drinking water there. The river water wasn’t properly treated for corrosion, and lead began leaching from pipes into city drinking water.
Advertisement
The plaintiffs are the National Resources Defense Council, American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, Concerned Pastors for Social Action and resident Melissa Mays.
The complaint, filed Wednesday, says service lines from water mains into homes should be replaced at no cost to customers. “In doing so, they are exposing the people of Flint to lead, a powerful toxin that can be devastating to young children”.
Undaunted by the high bar, a coalition of MI lawyers is pursuing creative arguments on behalf of what one of them, William Goodman of Detroit’s Goodman & Hurwitz, said could be as many as 30,000 to 90,000 residents. Even after switching back to the original water source, the water remains unsafe to drink.
The damaged pipes lost their protective coating and continue to leach lead, despite a return to Lake Huron water in October, according to the suit (PDF).
“Would more have been done, and at a much faster pace, if almost 40 percent of Flint residents were not living below the poverty line?” Residents of the city of 100,000 people had complained for months about elevated readings of lead in their drinking water and the blood of some children.
FILE – In this January 21, 2016, file photo, the Flint River is shown near downtown Flint, Mich. Flint’s water became contaminated with lead when the city switched from the Detroit municipal system and began drawing from the Flint River in April 2014 to save the financially struggling city money. $500,000 coming out of my own pocket & the other 1/2 (half) being met by @AvitaWater.
Port Clinton’s water testing schedule follows in-line with Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency’s monitoring schedule, he said. “He’s trying to PR this thing right now, he’s trying to blame civil servants for causing this or whatever”, Moore told CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper”.
The 17-member committee also includes Flint Mayor Karen Weaver and Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, who is credited with bringing the problem to the public’s attention after state agencies initially dismissed her concerns. “Once we have more accurate numbers from the Flint Water Department, we will revisit what is right for our citizens”.
A Republican legislative leader is criticizing Michigan’s attorney general for opening an investigation into Flint’s lead-tainted water, saying the probe should wait until a state task force’s work is done. It’s different from the class action lawsuits that have already been filed, because it’s not seeking monetary damages.
Advertisement
“While it might not be intentional, there’s this implicit bias against older cities – particularly older cities with poverty (and) majority-minority communities”, said Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, who represents the Flint area.
