The citizens of Flint, Michigan are facing a severe crisis with lead filling their water pipes; and while its governor, Rick Snyder, has issued an apology, no one it trying to hear any of it. During the State of the State Address on Tuesday, January 19, Snyder made an attempt to comfort the people.
“To begin, I’d like to address the people of Flint,” he says. “Your families face a crisis, a crisis you did not create and could not have prevented. I am sorry and I will fix it.”
The governor blamed officials at the Michigan departments of Environmental Quality and Health & Human Services for overlooking the issue. Snyder made clear that he would like to hold them accountable.
State workers were not excepting of his cop out. He was faced with plenty of boo’ing from the crowd.
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That was “an insult,” said Alan Kilar, a 69-year-old retired Children’s Protective Services worker from Mount Pleasant.
The governor “blamed it on the bureaucracy out of one side of his mouth and out of the other side he’s creating all these commissions, all this bureaucracy,” Kilar said. “I think he’s looking for a scapegoat.”
The blame game is the exact reasoning that the hashtag #ArrestGovSnyder went viral.
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According to rollingout, the lead-based water problem began with the cities officials trying to save money.
March 2013 – Flint city council voted in March 2013 to stop buying Detroit Water and instead switch the water source to a new pipeline (that needed to be constructed) to the Karegondi Water Authority. The new pipeline wouldn’t be completed for another three years — forcing Flint to find an interim source of drinking water — they opted for the Flint River.
April 2014 – Detroit notifies Flint it will stop selling the city water. Flint switches from Detroit water to the Flint River in an effort to “save” money. All children who drank Flint water since April 2014 may have been exposed to lead poisoning.
January 2015 – Detroit offers to reconnect water system after unfavorable findings during monitored tests, and also agrees to waive the $4 million connection fee. Emergency Manager (Jerry Ambrose) declines the switchback; Gov. Snyder awards $2 million to “fix” the findings (leaks and replace wastewater incinerator).
SOURCE: Detroit Free Press
