Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has come under fire for handling the drinking water situation in Flint so badly that some critics refer to it as “Katrina II”.
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Since then, free water filters and bottled water have been distributed to residents to help them deal with the lead contamination in Flint’s water supply.
Cher joined forces with bosses at Icelandic Glacial to donate over 181,000 bottles of water to the city’s residents via the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan on Wednesday (20Jan16), and she is still in disbelief about the problem.
As one MI conservative activist explained: “Gov. Rick Snyder appointed an emergency manager to address Flint’s longtime fiscal problems”. Many Flint residents, and Democratic politicians including Hillary Clinton and Flint’s mayor, Karen Weaver, have said the answer is yes.
“We hope that this challenge will inspire a friendly competition between these wonderful campaign organizers, with the overall goal of raising as much money as possible for those affected by this bad crisis”, he said. “They work for me so I accept that responsibility, and we’re going to fix this problem”. What has become clear, however, is that Kansas’ continuing budgetary squeeze and the anti-government, anti-federal assistance stances of state officials have created a series of personal crises for those individuals – the needy, prisoners and the mentally ill – who have the least power to affect policies that directly affect them.
Michigan’s top environmental officer has told his USA counterpart the state will comply with an order to ensure safe operation of Flint’s drinking water and protect public health.
He writes the state intends to “fully outline” its “legal and factual concerns with the order”.
Snyder apologized this week to Flint residents for the state’s failures. Their cost-cutting measures exposed Flint to a local supply of water that was more corrosive than the previous water supply and caused more lead to leach from aging water pipes.
Snyder’s office released a statement saying the state would cooperate with EPA.
Weaver met on Tuesday with President Obama over the water contamination crisis gripping her city. The phosphates build up a mineral layer inside pipes that inhibits corrosion and helps prevent lead from leaching into the water. But that doesn’t mean that those responsible for public health do their jobs.
Both employees were suspended pending an investigation, in accordance with civil service rules.
This so-called distortion of facts comes by cities using water testing methods that the Environmental Protection Agency have classified as being misleading.
Later in the day, Governor Snyder suspended two environmental regulators over their roles in the crisis.
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The EPA said Susan Hedman, head of the agency’s regional office in Chicago whose jurisdiction includes MI, was stepping down February 1 so the EPA could focus “solely on the restoration of Flint’s drinking water”.
