Flint Crisis: Governor Could Have Declared Disaster Sooner, Emails Show
"Rick Snyder previously said he became aware of severity of the lead problem on 1 October, but emails show he initially aimed to avoid a disaster declaration"."
"Rick Snyder previously said he became aware of severity of the lead problem on 1 October, but emails show he initially aimed to avoid a disaster declaration"."
"Two top advisers to Gov. Rick Snyder urged switching Flint back to Detroit’s water system in October 2014 after General Motors Co. said the city’s heavily chlorinated river water was rusting engine parts, according to governor’s office emails examined by The Detroit News."
"Residents of Flint, Michigan, one of the poorest cities in the United States, will get $30 million to help pay their water bills after a lead contamination crisis, under a bill unanimously approved by the Michigan Senate on Tuesday."
"Sixteen months after it was identified as a likely source of a deadly Legionnaires’ outbreak, Flint’s water supply still hasn’t been tested for the Legionella bacteria."
"Gov. Rick Snyder said Monday his office will release thousands of pages of emails his staff sent or received related to Flint’s water supply switch and subsequent contamination dating back to 2011."
Michigan officials still say they cannot conclusively link an outbreak of Legionnaire's disease to Flint’s contaminated water supply, partly because sputum cultures were not collected from patients. But the possibility of a link was raised in internal government emails as early as October 2014, and state officials did not inform the public of the outbreak until last month.
"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said it has serious concerns over the 'inadequate' response to the Flint toxic water crisis by both the city and Michigan officials, pointing to a lack of expert help on the ground and a failure to provide a proper water treatment plan."
"LANSING — Gov. Rick Snyder and Flint Mayor Karen Weaver — already at odds over how quickly Flint's lead service lines that carry drinking water to homes should be replaced — are also split over Snyder's choice of an engineering firm that a state document says helped prepare the city before its botched switch to using Flint River water."