“Relief workers are calling us, at Virginia Tech, and asking us to talk to residents who are refusing to bathe or shower because they are so scared and they don’t trust what the state and federal government are saying about the water being safe for bathing and showering”, Edwards says.
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As Flint, Michigan, grapples with a water crisis, Cincinnati City Councilman Christopher Smitherman is calling for the city to test 16,000 water pipes that are lined with lead.
This week, Snyder was served with a subpoena by attorneys representing Flint residents who have filed a class-action suit. The contamination there has been a months-long ordeal.
“The corrosion control treatment does minimize the lead coming from these lines, but since the lines are present they pose an ever-present risk”, Black said.
The lawsuit alleges that city and state officials have violated the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is requesting an additional Medicaid expansion for all people under 21 in Flint regardless of income or prior insurance in order to provide adequate and lower-cost services for young people who may have been affected by the lead crisis. A state plan to save $15 million on Flint’s water bills may now cost $1.5 billion in clean-up, Moore said in his online petition for help from President Barack Obama.
He says Snyder listened to the proposals, which include putting Flint’s youth to work distributing water and creating a victims’ fund.
“People are wondering what is happening in Detroit and Flint, why are they going through this?”. The state took over the city’s budget and chose to temporarily switch Flint’s water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River to save money until a new supply line to Lake Huron was ready.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder overrode the rights of the people who live in Flint by appointing an “emergency manager” to run the city.
The press conference came to an abrupt end when Snyder was asked a question about why he was using a special non-profit “social welfare” fund to pay for an out-of-state public relations firm instead of using the money to pay for staff working directly on water issues. The source has since been switched back, but the damage – experts say – appears to have already been done. The city has previously said that hindering its ability to raise water rates and put liens on those delinquent on bills could push Flint toward bankruptcy.
The residents of Flint, Michigan, haven’t had clean water to drink since 2014. Those are the chemical phosphates that were missing from the water between April 2014 and October 2015, due to Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and City of Flint mistakes, allowing corrosive Flint River water to carry away lead from pipes, joints and fixtures. The investigation could focus on whether environmental laws were broken or if there was official misconduct in the process that left Flint’s drinking water contaminated.
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“We want to highlight our lack of trust in state and federal government to properly address both the short-term crisis of the Flint water poisoning, and Detroit water shutoffs and the long-term effects and solutions”, Wedes said.
