Michigan governor still pursuing disaster aid for Flint
LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday asked President Barack Obama to reconsider his denial of a federal disaster declaration to address the Flint water crisis, saying its severity poses an “imminent and long-term threat” to residents.
Obama declared an emergency — qualifying the city for $5 million — but determined it is not a disaster based on the legal requirement that such additional relief is intended for natural events, fires, floods or explosions. Snyder had estimated a need for up to $95 million over a year.
In his appeal letter — sent the same day Obama was in Detroit for the North American International Auto Show — Snyder called the decision a “narrow reading” and likened the crisis to a flood, “given that qualities within the water, over a long term, [flooded] and damaged the city’s infrastructure in ways that were not immediately or easily detectable. This disaster is a natural catastrophe in the sense that lead contamination into water is a natural process.”
He said the state and city cannot meet all the needs of Flint residents. He again painted a bleak picture of the city and said the “economic injury” from the crisis is significant. Snyder said the disaster will lead to years, potentially decades of health problems and economic losses as well as infrastructure repairs that “neither the city, county or state have the capacity to conduct.”
The second-term Republican, who devoted his annual State of the State speech Tuesday night to the emergency in Flint, late Wednesday afternoon released his emails regarding Flint’s water, which became contaminated with lead when the city — under state financial management — switched its water source in 2014 as a cost-cutting measure.
Snyder’s messages indicated that then-chief of staff Dennis Muchmore was questioned in late September on whether the state was responsible for the water crisis. But he also noted that state officials had signed off on the city’s switch to a new water source.
The next day, Muchmore wrote to Snyder and other top aides, complaining that critics were focusing on the lead issue and “looking for someone to blame.” But, he said, two state agencies and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “can’t find evidence of a major change” in lead contamination.
Snyder released emails sent to him or by him. In Michigan, the executive office is exempt from public-records requests, but Snyder said he took the step so people “know the truth.”
“I’m sorry most of all that I let you down,” Snyder said in an address Tuesday night, as hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside the Capitol. “You deserve better. You deserve accountability. You deserve to know that the buck stops here with me. Most of all, you deserve to know the truth, and I have a responsibility to tell the truth.”
The lead — which can lead to behavior problems and learning disabilities in children and kidney ailments in adults — has left Flint residents unable to drink unfiltered tap water. The National Guard, state employees, local authorities and volunteers have been distributing lead tests, filters and bottled water. Snyder aides pledged that by the end of the week officials would visit every household in Flint to ensure they have water filters.
Democrats said Snyder only recently admitted the magnitude of the emergency, at least three months too late.
“This is the kind of disaster, the kind of failure to deliver basic services that hurts people’s trust in government,” state House Minority Leader Tim Greimel said.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver refused to call for Snyder’s resignation while at the U.S. Conference of Mayors
meeting in Washington, saying investigations should go forward. She said she wants Snyder to give Flint “the services and the money, the funds that we need to address the population.”
“People have said how they want things handled with him,” Weaver said Wednesday. “I’m staying focused on what I need to get from him right now.”
In his State of the State address, Snyder committed $28 million more in the short term to pay for more filters, bottled water, school nurses, intervention specialists, testing and monitoring — on top of $10.6 million allocated in the fall. The money also would replace plumbing fixtures in schools with lead problems and could help Flint with unpaid water bills.
The new round of funding, which requires approval from the GOP-led Legislature, is intended as another short-term step while Snyder works to get a better handle on the long-range costs. A House committee on Wednesday swiftly approved the spending bill, which will reach his desk after more legislative voting. He has said he plans to make a bigger request in his February budget proposal.
Snyder also announced the deployment of roughly 130 more National Guard members to the city,
“To you, the people of Flint, I say tonight as I have before: I am sorry, and I will fix it,” he said.
The U.S. Justice Department is helping the EPA to investigate, and Republican state Attorney General Bill Schuette has opened his own investigation. The EPA is under scrutiny for its role, too.