US Congress grills officials over Michigan drinking water pollution

[rooster59]

US Congress grills officials over Michigan drinking water pollution



US Congress members have called for a state governor and a watchdog chief to resign for failing to prevent a contaminated drinking water scandal.

Corrosive river water which supplied Flint in Michigan caused pipes to leak lead into the system. Lead is toxic and can damage the nervous system.

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency and the state’s Republican governor were quizzed in Washington.

“Let me be blunt, this was a failure of government at all levels: local, state, and federal officials. We all failed the families of Flint. This isn’t about politics nor partisanship. I’m not going to point fingers or shift blame. There’s plenty of that to share and neither will help the people of Flint,” Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder told the congressional committee hearing.

More than 200 residents from Flint travelled to Washington for the hearing. They included a 10-year-old boy whose mother said lead had affected his attention span and grades.

Blood samples taken from children revealed high levels of lead.

“We can go to the hardware (store) and get lead-free paint. We can go to the gas station and get unleaded gas. But we can’t turn on our faucets in Flint, Michigan and get lead-free water. We want lead-free water!” cried Bishop Bernadel L.Jefferson, a Michigan resident.

In 2014 water supplies to Flint, a mostly African-American city of 100,000, were switched to the Flint River to save money.

They went back to the Detroit system last October.

In Washington the health scandal has sparked a political row, partly along party lines, and the US Senate has failed to agree on a multi-million dollar bill to repair pipes.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-03-19

[elgordo38]

A few minions will get the "pointed finger" and maybe do jail time but the Republican governor behind this will walk away scott free. The senate will fuddle duddle around and finger point along party lines about who is to blame. It costs money to fix and like here governments hate to part with the cash unless it is for the military. So things are no better and justice no stronger in the good ole US of A than it is here.

[Trouble]

A few minions will get the "pointed finger" and maybe do jail time but the Republican governor behind this will walk away scott free. The senate will fuddle duddle around and finger point along party lines about who is to blame. It costs money to fix and like here governments hate to part with the cash unless it is for the military. So things are no better and justice no stronger in the good ole US of A than it is here.

While I do not know all the details of the issue, it seems to me that attacking the governor, which has been done a lot by the Democrats, is not getting at the source of the problem. The problem started when local Flint city officials decided to change from Detroit water to another source. There were problems and attempts to mitigate problems which the state environmental agency became involved in. It would seem very unlikely that the Governor, at that point in time, had anything to do with the local government of Flint changing where they get their water. If anything the local officials who made the decision to change should be the center of the investigation and have been. They obviously did not do their due diligence in insuring that changing the source of their purchased water was safe. The problem was that the Flint river water was corrosive to the lead pipes in the city causing the lead problem in the water. Now once the problem was found then what did the next layer of government, and there are many, do or not do to rectify the problem. One can fault the layers of government up to the governor for not taking appropriate action fast enough to rectify the problem but one should not place the blame for the initial action on the state government. That's where things always get political. Congressional hearings on this issue are nothing more than political stunts aiming to pacify the local electorate and show that the federal elected officials are doing something. It is all "dog and pony" show when the whole blame is the fault of local officials elected by the Flint residents.

[bendejo]

Snyder is going to get his ass nailed. They're calling out his plausible deniability, saying he's failing on the plausible part. They have the chronology documented and it looks like criminal negligence. Having the state gov't foot the million $$ legal bill is icing on the cake.

When he goes down there are going to be a lot gov't administrators soiling their undergarments.

[bendejo]

A few minions will get the "pointed finger" and maybe do jail time but the Republican governor behind this will walk away scott free. The senate will fuddle duddle around and finger point along party lines about who is to blame. It costs money to fix and like here governments hate to part with the cash unless it is for the military. So things are no better and justice no stronger in the good ole US of A than it is here.

While I do not know all the details of the issue, it seems to me that attacking the governor, which has been done a lot by the Democrats, is not getting at the source of the problem. The problem started when local Flint city officials decided to change from Detroit water to another source. There were problems and attempts to mitigate problems which the state environmental agency became involved in. It would seem very unlikely that the Governor, at that point in time, had anything to do with the local government of Flint changing where they get their water. If anything the local officials who made the decision to change should be the center of the investigation and have been. They obviously did not do their due diligence in insuring that changing the source of their purchased water was safe. The problem was that the Flint river water was corrosive to the lead pipes in the city causing the lead problem in the water. Now once the problem was found then what did the next layer of government, and there are many, do or not do to rectify the problem. One can fault the layers of government up to the governor for not taking appropriate action fast enough to rectify the problem but one should not place the blame for the initial action on the state government. That's where things always get political. Congressional hearings on this issue are nothing more than political stunts aiming to pacify the local electorate and show that the federal elected officials are doing something. It is all "dog and pony" show when the whole blame is the fault of local officials elected by the Flint residents.

So many things wrong with this post, amigo, you need to do a little more research. Or someone else will correct you point for point. I'll just give you one:

the whole blame is the fault of local officials elected by the Flint residents

Not so, and a good place to start

[stevenl]

A few minions will get the "pointed finger" and maybe do jail time but the Republican governor behind this will walk away scott free. The senate will fuddle duddle around and finger point along party lines about who is to blame. It costs money to fix and like here governments hate to part with the cash unless it is for the military. So things are no better and justice no stronger in the good ole US of A than it is here.

While I do not know all the details of the issue, it seems to me that attacking the governor, which has been done a lot by the Democrats, is not getting at the source of the problem. The problem started when local Flint city officials decided to change from Detroit water to another source. There were problems and attempts to mitigate problems which the state environmental agency became involved in. It would seem very unlikely that the Governor, at that point in time, had anything to do with the local government of Flint changing where they get their water. If anything the local officials who made the decision to change should be the center of the investigation and have been. They obviously did not do their due diligence in insuring that changing the source of their purchased water was safe. The problem was that the Flint river water was corrosive to the lead pipes in the city causing the lead problem in the water. Now once the problem was found then what did the next layer of government, and there are many, do or not do to rectify the problem. One can fault the layers of government up to the governor for not taking appropriate action fast enough to rectify the problem but one should not place the blame for the initial action on the state government. That's where things always get political. Congressional hearings on this issue are nothing more than political stunts aiming to pacify the local electorate and show that the federal elected officials are doing something. It is all "dog and pony" show when the whole blame is the fault of local officials elected by the Flint residents.

I really dont understand a post like this.

You start with admitting you don't know the details, and then go on critizing. Why don't you first make sure you know all the details.

[Credo]

The governor should bare a great deal of responsibility. There was a major health issue in his state and there were rumblings about it and complaints. Whether he could've/should've/would've done anything is questionable, but at a minimum he needed to investigate and to warn the people of the danger they faced.

That is the prudent thing to do.

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.