Genesee County health official suggests Snyder withheld information about lead test results

Feb 14, 2016, 07:05

Rick Snyder pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to help the people of Flint in next year's state budget after the city's water supply was poisoned by lead for a year and a half. The $54.9 billion all-funds spending plan includes a $10.2 billion general fund budget.

His proposal Wednesday drew mostly positive reaction from lawmakers who will consider the legislation in the coming months and likely approve a plan in early June.

"This was a awful tragedy and it really goes to multiple levels of government".

"We've got some big things that we've got to so, but because we've taken care of our finances, and done a better job with budgeting over the last four or five years, we can take on the big things and get 'em done".

The EPA has acknowledged that state officials notified the agency last April that Flint was not treating the river water with additives to prevent corrosion from pipes.

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Health workers, most notably the pediatrician who first reported the elevated blood lead levels in children in Flint, Dr Mona Hanna-Attisha, testified that the city's children will need additional nutrition services to combat the neurotoxin and to be surveilled for long-term health impacts.

Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, a Flint Democrat, said Snyder's priorities for Flint "seem to match the areas we have been stressing for some time - health, education and infrastructure".

In 2014, before Weaver took office, Flint officials changed the city's water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River, which led to lead poisoning, rashes, possibly legionnaire's disease and innumerable future lawsuits from residents against the city and state. The city says that air and sediment could be in the water pipes because of the low pressure, and people with filters should not flush their systems because any sediment could clog the filters, making them ineffective.

On Wednesday, Snyder proposed $195 million more in state funding for Flint, on top of $37 million already approved to fix the lead water issues.

The Michigan Public Radio Network's Rick Pluta reports on Governor Snyder's proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

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Snyder spokesman Dave Murray said the governor's office didn't know about the Legionnaires' outbreak until March 2015.

"We can't forget that we have lead pipes and challenges in other places in addition to Flint, and it's time to act on that".

Weaver spoke after an informational hearing Wednesday on Flint led by Democratic lawmakers.

She estimated that replacing 15,000 of those lines, which connect homes to the city water system, would cost $55 million. They were exacerbated by government officials' failure to disclose and stop the leaching of lead and other toxins into the water. That money will come from Michigan's tobacco settlement, not the school aid fund. Teachers complaining of mold and other deplorable conditions in the Detroit school district waged a sickout this year that closed dozens of schools in the city.

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