Re-post from The Blade

 

Michigan National Guard member Zach Burrell helps distribute water to residents in their cars in Flint, Michigan, on January 21. The EPA didn’t act as urgently and as transparently as it could have to help the people of Flint – something it has acknowledged only grudgingly.

“The people weren’t put first, the health of the people was not put before profit and money”, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver says in an interview with Ari Shapiro on All Things Considered.

Walters says her 5-year-old son has developed speech issues and a compromised immune system since the water crisis began.

Taylor compares what is going on in Flint to New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina and Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown.

There are now lawsuits and federal investigations pending to find out exactly who knew what about the water’s toxicity and when they knew it, with much of the blame being directed at Gov. Snyder.

The agency also sent a letter to Snyder telling him the city is violating federal drinking water rules and must work quickly to fix them.

Water from the river, known locally as a dumping ground, was more corrosive, causing more lead to leach from Flint’s aging water pipes than the Detroit water the city previously used.

Snyder, a Republican in his second term, was blasted by Hillary Clinton in her remarks after the recent Democratic presidential debate.

“I’ll tell you what, if the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and been in it, there would’ve been action”, she said. It was a city, not a state, problem, they said.

Research shows the presence of lead in the blood of children, even at low levels, can stunt their development seriously and irreversibly – in particular, the development of their brain.

“We’re talking birth rates defects, we’re talking sterility stuff like that, and that’s what really bothers me”, he said. Snyder has also “focused on improving education in all our cities, knowing that students need to not just graduate, but graduate with in-demand skills as they compete in a global economy”. Healthy Michigan was a whole Medicaid expansion.

Until Flint’s infrastructure is renovated and all of the corroded pipes are replaced, the water crisis will not end. He said he was releasing them “so that you have answers to your questions about what we’ve done and what we’re doing to make this right for the families of Flint”.

Many have argued that the public health crisis in the poor, majority-Black city points to issues of structural inequality and racism. In the early 1970s, the automaker employed 80,000 blue- and white-collar workers in the area. Fewer than 8,000 GM jobs remain.

In the wake of the financial crisis MI was hit harder than most.

“The real responsibility rests with the county, city and KWA”, he wrote, referring to the Karegnondi Water Authority.

The information comes from The Guardian, which says it received documents showing that city water tests are “systematically distorting” the amount of lead present. They would never do this to Ann Arbor.

13 in Flint, Michigan. He called for Snyder’s ouster and arrest.

Snyder made the emails public on Wednesday following widespread criticism.

“Let’s call this what it is”, Moore said. And the water crisis there is no coincidence, says Henry Louis Taylor Jr., University at Buffalo professor of urban and regional planning and director of the Center for Urban Studies.

Roger Schneider reported from Detroit. He’s known best for launching and contributing to the newsletterInside Michigan Politics.