Michigan Offered Bottled Water to State Employees in Flint Even as Residents Told Tap Water Was Safe
Last edited Thu Jan 28, 2016, 08:02 PM - Edit history (2)
Source: Associated Press / Mother Jones
@AP: Michigan offered bottled water to state employees in Flint even as residents were told tap water was safe: https://t.co/cQmjENroXP/s/6K9Y
Long Before Helping Flint, Michigan Officials Were Shipping Clean Water to Their Own Workers
According to newly released emails.
—Julia Lurie on Thu. January 28, 2016 5:35 PM PDT
According to newly discovered emails, Michigan officials were trucking clean water to a state building in Flint in January 2015, long before they acknowledged to residents that the city had a contamination problem.
One of the emails, which were obtained by the group Progress Michigan, was sent from the state Department of Technology, Management, and Budget. It reads, "While the City of Flint states that corrective actions are not necessary, DTMB is in the process of providing a water cooler on each occupied floor, positioned near the water fountain, so you can choose which water to drink. The coolers will arrive today and will be provided as long as the public water does not meet treatment requirements."
The email was sent just days after the city sent out an advisory about high levels of a trihalomethanes in its water but maintained that, for healthy individuals, the water was safe to drink. Residents had been reporting smelly, tainted water and adverse health conditions related to it since shortly after Flint switched water sources in April 2014.
Until October 2015, the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder maintained that it was unaware of high levels of lead in Flint's water. Progress Michigan's Lonnie Scott says the emails "blow a hole in the governor's timeline for when they knew or started to have concerns about Flint water. They were helping state employees while telling everyone else that there was nothing to worry about."
Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/01/snyder-administration-started-trucking-clean-water-state-buildings
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/71fe17c2d2c74f5c9a6dfd2bf4c6beac/latest-pistons-owner-offers-10m-resolve-flint-woes
The Latest: State workers have been getting water for a year
JAN. 28, 2016 6:38 PM EST
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — The latest on Flint's water crisis and efforts to fix the problem of lead in the drinking water (all times local):
6:35 p.m.
An official says the state of Michigan has offered fresh bottled water at a state building in Flint for a year — although residents were told not to worry about their tap water until last fall.
Caleb Buhs, a spokesman for the agency that manages state buildings, says the water coolers began in January 2015 after Flint had flunked some drinking water standards apart from the lead contamination that has caused the current crisis.
He says the water coolers still are supplied to a state building in Flint. Employees can also use the drinking fountains.
Buhs says it was a decision "we made as the building owner."
A liberal group critical of Gov. Rick Snyder released state emails Thursday that described how water was being provided to the building.
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