As National Guard troops patrol Flint handing out bottled water, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder defended his handling of the crisis and defied calls for him to resign.
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Snyder requested the president declare a federal emergency on Thursday after almost exhausting all efforts to prevent residents from cooking, drinking, and bathing using the lead-filled water.
The announcement from Michigan’s attorney general comes just hours after Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced he’s asking President Barack Obama to issue an emergency and major disaster declaration. Almost 60 percent of residents get food stamps, and median household income is 50 percent less than the statewide figure, according to Snyder’s letter.
The application seeks help from all available federal programs.
Despite not drinking the water, one family’s 4-year-old child was poisoned by lead.
The situation started in 2014, when Flint switched its public water supply from the Detroit water system to the local Flint River in an effort to save money.
In northern MI, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that Suttons Bay Congregational Church is collecting bottles and jugs of water for a homeless shelter and soup kitchen in Flint.
Dr Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician conducting research on the health crisis in Flint, said that her main concern was how thousands of children have been affected, since they are the most vulnerable to the “life-altering and irreversible” damages of lead poisoning.
A buildup of lead in the body can cause mental and physical problems, or even death, and small children are especially vulnerable.
Everyone is urged to get a free filter. State officials are now focused on providing water filters and drinking water to Flint residents.
Speaking earlier in the evening to a private reception at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Snyder described how he has been in touch in recent days with a number of federal emergency officials, including the Secretary of Homeland Security and a top White House liaison on state issues to discuss how the federal government might be able to aid MI.
But it was not until October 2015 that officials declared a public health emergency telling residents not to drink the water without an approved filter due to lead contamination.
“We’re finally getting the attention that we need and deserve”. It turned out the river water was highly corrosive – 19 times more corrosive than the water in Lake Huron, Virginia Tech researchers discovered. The head of the department and his spokesman resigned.
On Friday, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said he would investigate whether any laws were violated in the crisis. He declined to elaborate on the scope of the probe.
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December 29: Snyder accepts the resignation of Department of Environmental Quality Director Dan Wyant and apologizes for what occurred in Flint.
