Gov. Rick Snyder was in Flint today addressing the plan to replace the lead pipes that have caused a water crisis.
Advertisement
Weaver said in a news release that she is working with water infrastructure experts from the Lansing Board of Water & Light to train local Flint workers on lead pipe removal at a vacant property in Flint owned by the Genesee County Land Bank. The new funding would pay for pipe replacement in several hundred homes.
The state judge also ordered two sides in a lawsuit to discuss how the city must repay its water and sewer fund by $15.7 million, said the attorney, Valdemar L. Washington, also a Flint resident and a retired state judge. Flint children soon began turning up with dangerously high levels of lead in their blood, which can cause brain damage.
State and federal officials acted to send more help to Flint to deal with its lead-contamination crisis, as the Michigan House approved $30 million on Thursday to help pay residents’ water bills and Gov. Rick Snyder announced a $2 million grant to help the city replace some of its pipes.
The findings only add insult to injury, as Flint residents had to pay $864.32 yearly for their water despite the fact that it was filled with lead and was toxic to drink or even bathe in.
To date, more than 10,000 Flint homes have been tested for lead levels. Snyder has apologized for his administration’s role in the lead contamination of Flint’s water supply. Rowe has been a long standing fixture in the Flint business community, and Snyder is hoping their familiarity with the city’s underground infrastructure will help expedite the replacement process. On the other end of the spectrum, the report says household water use was most affordable in Phoenix, Arizona, where the annual tab came to $84.24.
“This funding continues Michigan’s substantial and coordinated response to the Flint water crisis”, Snyder said.
“We explain how our system works and who we’re connected to and that usually alleviates any concern”, he said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it worked within the framework of the law to “repeatedly and urgently communicate” steps that the state of MI and city of Flint needed to take to properly treat Flint’s water.
Snyder said recoating pipes while planning to replace them “are not mutually exclusive”. “We need to make sure people will be able to once again turn on the tap and be able to use what comes from it. We’re immediately targeting high-risk, high-hazard homes to help those families”. State officials had quietly started shipping bottled water to state workers in the city.
Advertisement
“We see it as a case study of what happens when public utilities are run like businesses”, says Mary Grant, the author of the report and a campaign director at Food and Water Watch.
