The second-term Republican, who devoted his annual State of the State speech Tuesday to Flint, released the emails late Wednesday afternoon.
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Indeed, President Barack Obama must also ask himself why his EPA didn’t tell him – at once! – when it first discovered lead in Flint’s water. The Michigan House on Wednesday approved $28 million in state funding requested by the governor to assist the city. “Gov. Snyder should resign”. “I’ll tell you what”, she said.
President Obama visited Detroit on Wednesday for the North American International Auto Show to highlight a resurgence in the auto industry, which was bailed out by American taxpayers during the financial crisis of 2008. Untreated water from the Flint River allowed lead to leach from the pipes, officials said.
The Flint River water was not properly treated to keep lead from pipes from leaching into the supply.
Then-chief of staff Dennis Muchmore also told the governor that residents were “caught in a swirl of misinformation” about lead contamination and that it was up to local leaders to confront the issue, according to the emails.
The next day, Muchmore wrote to Snyder and other top aides, complaining that critics were focusing on the lead issue and “looking for someone to blame”. “We can’t tolerate increased lead levels in any event, but it’s really the city’s water system that needs to deal with it”.
Soon after that he says officials confirmed the dangers in the water in Flint resulting in his call of action to put a plan in place to test for lead exposure. “So we’re not able to avoid the subject”.
In that same September 26th email chain, Geralyn Lasher, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, says the agency is reviewing information sent over by the pediatrician but doesn’t appear to put much stock in it.
The problem began in 2014, when Snyder appointed an emergency manager, now in charge of the financially beleaguered school system, who, to save money, switched water sources.
Democrats said Snyder only recently acknowledged the magnitude of the fiasco, at least three months too late. It said the agency’s oversight was hampered by “failures and resistance at the state and local levels”.
The task force chairman, Ken Sikkema, said in a separate message that the finding was “critical and urgent” and could not be delayed until the group completed its report.
Gov. Rick Snyder is asking the Obama Administration to change its mind and declare a major disaster in Flint.
Neither are some of the 7,000 residents living in and around the 48217 ZIP code in southwest Detroit, labeled by the Detroit Free Press as the state’s most polluted. The population is almost 60 percent black.
An email on this date included a Department of Environmental Quality “backgrounder”, which discussed complaints about the taste, smell and color of Flint’s water.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, left, talks to reporters Wednesday during the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington.
“What is inexplicable and inexcusable is once people figured out that there was a problem there, and that there was lead in the water, the notion that immediately families weren’t notified, things weren’t shut down”, Obama said.
Snyder committed $28 million more in the short term, announced the deployment of more National Guard members to the city and promised to quickly release his emails regarding the crisis that has engulfed his administration with criticism from across the country. The request, which would cover more filters, bottled water, school nurses and testing and monitoring, and it would also replace plumbing fixtures in schools with lead problems and help Flint with unpaid water bills. The move was meant to be a stop-gap measure until a pipeline to Lake Huron was completed for Flint’s municipal water.
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She said she was grateful for the attention her city was receiving from the national news media and political leaders but that it had taken much too long for aid to arrive.
