On ABC’s This Week, co-host Martha Raddatz asked Bush who is to blame for the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and the fact that the city of more than 100,000 Americans had been “drinking, eating, brushing their teeth in lead-contaminated water, while the government was telling them repeatedly ‘it’s safe to use'”. For many, it echoes the lackluster federal response to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
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Matt Rourke/AP Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush praised Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder for accepting responsibility over the water crisis in Flint.
He writes the state intends to “fully outline” its “legal and factual concerns with the order”.
Also Friday, State Representative Sheldon Neeley accused the Snyder administration of hiding some of the governor’s correspondence on the issue.
Cher has been in regular contact with Flint Mayor Karen Weaver to help with the crisis, while she has also been taking aim at Governor Snyder for initially playing down the controversy and then passing the blame on to other civil service officials. Their cost-cutting measures exposed Flint to a local water supply that was more corrosive than the previous water supply and caused more lead to leach from aging water pipes.
According to Reuters, Snyder has said that the Flint water crisis is “absolutely not” a case of environmental racism.
The state department of environmental quality botched the tests showing high lead levels.
-Michigan State: The university’s College of Human Medicine announced a partnership with Hurley Children’s Hospital for a Pediatric Public Health Initiative aimed at addressing the lead exposure in Flint by providing assessment, research and monitoring, and interventions. Gov. Rick Snyder put the figure at $700 million.
The unnamed DEQ employees were suspended Friday pending investigations.
On Friday, Snyder hired a new PR firm, Mercury LLC, to help his administration weather growing demands for his resignation, impeachment and criminal indictment for his administration’s complicity in the poisoning of Flint residents.
The agency’s director and communications director resigned last month.
The governor says some agency actions “lacked common sense, and that resulted in this bad tragedy in Flint”.
Since the EPA is accused of acting too slow in resolving the issue of high lead content in Flint’s water, McCarthy issued an emergency order demanding that the state and its head act to ensure the safety of the public.
Some locals say the federal government needs to contribute more, especially considering the role that the federal Environmental Protection Agency played in the crisis. While all the funds given are available immediately, it is unsure just how much money the city of Flint will actually receive, the Detroit Free Press reports.
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Snyder declared a state of emergency on January 5 and mobilized the National Guard to distribute bottled water and filters on January 12. Moreover, the state lawmaker contends that when Snyder released the email messages, that particular message, among others, was not included. About one-third of the infected people’s homes received Flint water, which was found to have elevated lead levels after the city began drawing from the Flint River.
