Tag Archives: Contaminated Water

Political fallout from Flint water crisis spreads

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is determined to find out what went wrong in the contaminated water crisis in Flint, Michigan, officials said on Wednesday, and environmental regulators were set to provide Congress with information about their role.

Blame is swirling after a switch in the water supply to the city north of Detroit led to elevated levels of lead in drinking water.

“The president is absolutely determined to figure out what went wrong, generally speaking,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters traveling with Obama on Air Force One. Schultz noted that the matter was under investigation.

Facing protests, lawsuits and calls for his resignation, Michigan Governor Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, a Republican, apologized to the city’s residents on Tuesday and called for the state to spend $28 million on fixes.

But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, while saying it was reviewing its handling of the crisis and could have acted faster to inform the state of what measures it should take, also blamed the state on Tuesday. It said the agency’s oversight was hampered by “failures and resistance at the state and local levels.”

Flint, financially strapped and under a state-appointed emergency manager, switched to Flint River water in April 2014 from a Detroit-run water system to save money.

Complaints about the water began within a month of the switch. But Flint did not return to Detroit water until October 2015 after tests showed elevated levels of lead, which can cause brain damage and other health problems, in Flint tap water and in some children. Corrosive water from the river, known locally as a dumping ground, caused more lead to leach from Flint pipes than Detroit water did.

“This is something nobody should have to deal with. Everybody should have clean water … Resources are being sent to Flint as we speak,” Flint Mayor Karen Weaver told a conference in Washington on Wednesday.

She was interrupted by a protester shouting “I need some water.”

In his state of the state speech on Tuesday, Snyder said federal, state and local leaders had failed residents.

He asked Michigan lawmakers to authorize $28 million in spending on diagnostic tests, health treatment for children and adolescents, replacement of old fixtures in Flint schools and day care centers and a study of the city’s water pipes.

Snyder, who has faced questions on how soon he acted after learning about the water problem in Flint, promised to release his Flint-related emails from 2014 and 2015 on Wednesday.

A group of bipartisan lawmakers including Michigan Republican Fred Upton, of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, wrote last week to Environmental Protection Agency head Gina McCarthy, requesting a briefing about the Flint contamination. That briefing to congressional staffers was scheduled for Thursday.

The House committee letter mentioned reports that said people in Flint have been exposed to dangerous biological pathogens and chemicals in the drinking water. Although Flint has now switched back to Detroit’s water system, lead levels in the city’s water are still elevated.

Several lawsuits have been filed in the case. The latest on Tuesday asked a judge to stop Flint from issuing shutoff notices to residents, who are still receiving bills for water declared undrinkable.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Additional reporting by David Shepardson, Lacey Johnson, Ian Simpson; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Frances Kerry)

Michigan governor asks Obama for federal aid in Flint water crisis

DETROIT (Reuters) – Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has asked President Barack Obama to declare both an emergency and an expedited major disaster in the county where the city of Flint has been dealing with the fallout from lead-contaminated drinking water.

Snyder said in a statement released shortly before midnight on Thursday that he requested federal aid in Genesee County to protect the safety of Flint residents. Earlier this week, he sent the Michigan National Guard to distribute bottled water and other supplies.

The financially strapped city was under control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched its source of tap water from Detroit’s system to the nearby Flint River in April 2014 to save money.

Flint, which is about 60 miles northwest of Detroit, returned to using that city’s water in October after tests found elevated levels of lead in the water and in the blood of some children.

The more corrosive water from the Flint River leached lead from the city pipes more than Detroit water did, leading to the problems.

“We are utilizing all state resources to ensure Flint residents have access to clean and safe drinking water,” Snyder said, “and today I am asking President Obama to provide additional resources.”

On Friday, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said he would investigate whether any laws were violated in the crisis. “No one should have to fear something as basic as turning on the kitchen faucet.”

The assistance Snyder has requested could include grants for temporary housing, home repairs and other needs. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will review the request and advise Obama.

The White House said on Friday it would consider Snyder’s request, which was being reviewed by FEMA. A FEMA spokesman said the agency will give its recommendation to the president as soon as possible.

Some Flint residents sued Snyder, other officials, Michigan and the city on Jan. 7 in Genesee County court and are seeking class action status covering all residents.

Other Flint residents late last year filed a federal lawsuit. Genesee County also has seen a spike of Legionnaires’ disease resulting in 10 deaths that may or may not be related to the water crisis, state officials previously said.

Also on Friday, Snyder said he supports the return of more executive powers to Flint Mayor Karen Weaver. Since the city is in receivership, a city administrator is currently responsible for day-to-day operations.

(Additional reporting by Julia Edwards and Jeff Mason in Washington; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Bill Trott and Meredith Mazzilli)

Legionnaires’ spike in Michigan county dealing with water crisis

(Reuters) – The Michigan county already reeling from lead-contaminated drinking water in the city of Flint has seen a spike of Legionnaires’ disease resulting in 10 deaths that may or may not be related to the water crisis, officials said on Wednesday.

Genesee County, which includes Flint, had 87 cases of Legionnaires’ from June 2014 to November 2015. State officials told a news conference they could not conclude that the increase was due to a switch in the source of Flint’s water.

“That just adds to the disaster we already are facing with respect to elevated lead levels,” Governor Rick Snyder said.

About half the cases were connected to Flint water and half were not, according to Nick Lyon, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Legionnaires is a type of pneumonia caused by inhaling mist infected with the bacteria Legionella. The mist may come from air-conditioning units for large buildings, hot tubs or showers.

Genesee County and Michigan health departments are investigating the increase as are the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Snyder said.

Snyder called in Michigan National Guard troops, who arrived on Wednesday to help distribute bottled water, water filters, testing kits and other supplies to Flint residents.

The governor, who has been accused of waiting too long to intervene in the crisis, also requested support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has appointed a disaster recovery coordinator to help Michigan.

Financially strapped Flint was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched its source of tap water to the nearby Flint River in April 2014 from Detroit’s water system 60 miles to the southeast to save money.

Flint returned to the Detroit water system in October after tests found some children had elevated levels of lead in their blood and lead was found in higher-than-acceptable levels in the water. The city said in December lead levels remained well above acceptable levels.

Snyder has apologized for the state’s mishandling of the situation and declared a state of emergency in Genesee County to bring in additional state resources.

Last week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit said it was investigating the lead contamination of Flint’s water. Flint residents have filed a federal lawsuit accusing the city and state of endangering their health.

Flint Mayor Declares State of Emergency As Lead Seeps Into Water Supply

The new mayor of Flint, Michigan, declared a state of emergency earlier this week, the latest development in the embattled city’s ongoing battle with elevated levels of lead in its water.

Karen Weaver, who became mayor in November, said in a statement on the city’s website that she made the declaration to raise awareness that the water still isn’t safe to drink, almost two months after the city stopped taking problematic water from the Flint River and reverted to its old supplier, the city of Detroit. Weaver said Flint was experiencing “a man-made disaster.”

“It’s been going on for over a year now,” Weaver said in a televised interview on The Rachel Maddow Show. “We have problems with our infrastructure. We have children that have been damaged by this lead. They have permanent brain damage. We know that Flint is not in a position to bear this burden alone, and we are asking and looking for state and federal assistance. The only way we were going to have this happen was to declare a state of emergency.”

According to MLive.com, which covers news in Michigan, the problem started in April 2014. That’s when the city stopped taking water from Detroit and started taking water from the Flint River as it awaited the construction of a new pipeline to Lake Huron. City officials decided not to ink a short-term contract with Detroit, which gets water from the lake, and use the river instead.

But in her interview with Rachel Maddow, Weaver said that the river water was corrosive and damaged a protective part of the city’s pipes, allowing lead to leach out into the water supply. Michigan Radio reported that city and state officials continued to insist the water was safe, even as scientists from Virginia Tech found higher levels of lead in the city’s tap water. MLive.com reported the city finally issued a lead advisory in September 2015, 17 months after the switch.

The city reverted to Detroit’s water system in October, but the danger of lead exposure is still very much real. The problem is no longer with the water source, but Flint’s damaged pipes.

“We don’t want people to feel that because we’ve made the switch back to Detroit water that everything is fine now, because it’s not,” Weaver said in her interview with Maddow.

The World Health Organization, an arm of the United Nations, says that lead poisoning is particularly harmful to children. It’s known to damage nervous and reproductive systems, as well as cause high blood pressure and anemia. If enough lead gets into the blood of children, it can lead to irreversible consequences like learning disabilities, retardation and even death.

In September 2015, the day before the city issued the lead advisory, doctors from the Hurley Medical Center released a study that found that more of Flint’s children were displaying elevated levels of lead in their blood since the switch. The percentage of children with elevated lead levels went from 2.1 percent to 4 percent citywide, though it was as high as 6.3 percent in some areas.

Speaking to British newspaper The Guardian on Thursday, one of the doctors responsible for that study, Mona Hanna-Attisha, said up to 15 percent of children in certain parts of the city now have high levels of lead in their blood. Hanna-Attisha called the water situation “an emergency” and said it was “a disaster right here in Flint that is alarming and absolutely gut-wrenching.”

“We are assuming that the entire population of the city of Flint has been exposed, if you drank the water or cooked with the water,” Hanna-Attisha told the newspaper, noting that cooking with the water would actually concentrate the levels of lead. According to Flint’s website, the levels of lead “remain well above” federal safety standards for drinking water “in many homes.”

In her interview with Maddow, Weaver said some kids under the age of six have neurological damage, and the city would have to attempt to provide services to them and their families.

The city encourages residents to keep using water filters while it works on a long-term solution.

First Decontaminated Water from Fukushima Released into Ocean

The first batches of water that have reportedly been decontaminated after being flooded with radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster has been released into the Pacific Ocean.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the owner and operator of Fukushima, said they released 850 tons of formerly radioactive water extracted from the ground near the plant into the ocean.  TEPCO says the filtering process used makes the water safe for the environment and aquatic life.

The release was part of a plan to ease the buildup of toxic water at the complex.  Around 300 tons of untainted groundwater is flowing daily into the complex and mixing with the radioactive water within the reactors.

The release comes after years of fishermen fighting the power company fearing that the water is still too dangerous and would harm their livelihood.

However, one member of a committee designed to make sure there is no repeat of the meltdown, says that real danger is contaminated water that is still being stored on the site.

“The risk that you run is that you have all these tanks full of water,” Dale Klein told AFP in an interview.  “The longer you store the water, the more likely you are going to have (an) uncontrolled release.”

At least 680,000 tons of highly radioactive water is still being stored on the site of the plant.