And that pivot needs to be led by Gov. Rick Snyder, both in the way he talks about Flint, and in the way he frames the policy discussion going forward.
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Snyder’s budget, if it prioritized more investment in cities and the people in them, would go a long way toward putting Flint’s water crisis in important social and historical context. So why should the situation in Flint eclipse the rest of America?
The Detroit News reports that about 30 from Michigan State University helped pass out water and collect empty plastic bottles Friday outside a Flint shopping center.
Snyder says lead pipes are being recoated but officials want to be “extra careful” before declaring the water is safe again.
E-mails came out yesterday describing the health impact people were getting living in Flint.
The crisis began when the city switched from a Detroit supplied water source to a cheaper, local source of water.
“I’m over it. I really just want to leave”, said Denettra Brown, who is Oscar and Elizabeth’s great-granddaughter and lives in the house with her son, Dana, who is suffering from unexplained health problems. “But I think states also feel we collectively as a drinking water community, as a country, need to improve on the existing regulation”.
“Outside people were figuring out these problems, while the very agencies that we pay to protect us from lead in water were lying to each other in writing”, Edwards says.
Senators David Vitter of Louisiana, James Inhofe of Oklahoma and John Cornyn of Texas say it “certainly appears that the EPA did not take action” or least alert the public about lead contamination in Flint’s water.
Deep down, the Brown family knew the water that had flowed through the pipes in their home in Flint, Michigan – the water that 3-year-old Dana had been drinking for months before anyone was warned – probably contained toxic lead.
Snyder responded that he is working hard to fix the problem.
Unfortunately, domestic water crises are not limited to just MI. For example, right now Pennsylvania does not require across-the-board lead testing in children. “In other words, millions of consumers who are now being told that their water is safe, are drinking and cooking with water that routinely dispenses high concentrations of lead”, he added.
Snyder said Friday that approval of the “economic injury disaster loans will help business owners and nonprofits in Flint recover from any damages as a result of the water crisis”.
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Snyder, at a news conference on January 27, said any totals for the replacement of lead service lines in Flint are nonetheless “speculation” until a complete assessment is made, and that the short-term goal is to recoat pipes that were corroded by Flint River water to prevent lead leaching.
