The report adds that emergency managers made the decision to switch Flint’s water source from Detroit and instead to use Flint River resources. Ms. McCarthy said MI officials dragged their feet in responding to the disaster in Flint; Mr. Snyder said he relied on “career bureaucrats” who assured him the water was safe.
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A task force appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to investigate the drinking water contamination in Flint, Michigan, has released a report with 44 recommendations to improve government policies and performance and to prevent similar crises from happening elsewhere.
The report says Snyder “must assume the leadership of, and hold state departments accountable for, long-term implementation of the recommendations in this report, including but not limited to the need for cultural changes across multiple state agencies, the need for health mitigation and (lead service line) replacement in Flint, and the need for a funding strategy to address replacement of LSLs statewide”. Chaffetz said considering that he brought the problem to light months before the EPA finally enacted an emergency order in Flint in January of this year, Del Toral should have been given a pay raise.
“It is in part an infrastructure crisis, but it is also a case of gaps in government oversight at all levels, of ill-thought austerity and of not being aggressively proactive in taking the job of protecting, treating and distributing drinking water as a public health issue”, Clean Water Action’s Thorp said.
The scathing report comes after EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy blamed Flint’s lead problems on state regulators who prescribed the wrong chemical treatments to keep corrosive river water from leaching lead pipes after the city switched its water supply in 2014. Lead in children can be particularly devastating and cause developmental disabilities later in life. The Flint Child Health and Development Fund is so important to the local community that Ascension Michigan (Borgess Health – Kalamazoo, Crittenton Hospital Medical Center – Rochester, Genesys Health System – Grand Blanc, St. John Providence – Detroit, St. Mary’s of Michigan – Saginaw, and St. Joseph Hospital – Tawas City) has supported the initiative by donating to this effort. But the report called that likely a “profound underestimate”.
“The department of environmental quality here in MI bears primary responsibility for what happened in Flint”, Sikkema said.
In a report released by the panel, it found that the state is wholly responsible for the contamination of Flint’s drinking water, Think Progress reports. Elected city leaders agreed, but were powerless at the time because of the emergency manager law.
Kildee said the state of MI made a critical mistake in failing to reinvest in infrastructure but also for failing to reinvest in their people.
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Former emergency manager Ed Kurtz authorized the use of the river as the water source, the report states. Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said documents were found scattered around the room, making it impossible to know what, if anything, was stolen. “We believe the state must assume that accountability”. It puts the blame on the the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and calls for a review of the state of Michigan’s emergency manager law.
