EPA awards $100 million to upgrade Flint water system

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters



17 MAR 2017 AT 12:43 ET

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday it had awarded $100 million to upgrade Flint, Michigan’s drinking water infrastructure to address a crisis that exposed thousands of children to lead poisoning.

The grant to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality will enable the city to “accelerate and expand” its work to replace lead pipes and make other improvements, according to the EPA. Estimates of the upgrade’s cost range from $200 million to $400 million.

Friday’s announcement made the disbursement official. Last year, Congress passed and former president Barack Obama signed the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act to allocate $100 million to aid Flint.

The EPA’s state revolving funds, which Congress can allocate to help with cleanup efforts, were one of the few programs that the Trump administration did not slash in its proposed budget for the agency. “EPA will especially focus on helping Michigan improve Flint’s water infrastructure as part of our larger goal of improving America’s water infrastructure,” said a statement from agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/epa-awards-100-million-to-upgrade-flint-water-system/

[elfin]

1. Wonder if they authorized the grant and set it in official motion before the new regime took hold..

despite the words in the press release. Perhaps Pruitt HAD to do it due to previous requirements he could not ignore.

Will wait to see.

More cities at risk from lead pipes to homes. Usually in (surprise!) poorer neighborhoods.

Wish I could completely accept this as good news, because I no longer trust ANYTHING that sounds like sanity from this administration.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Funding was most likely allocated

under FY16 or FY15 funds. Because of the general cruelty of this current administration, I expect they will eventually claim "cost overruns", etc., and cancel it later, hoping that it doesn't make the news.

[mdbl]

9. he'll cancel it and still take credit for it

that's what liars do!

[Vinca]

3. Trump, of course, will take credit for it.

[Siwsan]

4. The rumor around town is that trump* is saying he plans to make Flint 'great' again

Which, when considering what he deems to be great, sounds more like a threat than anything else.

Flint is everything he hates - a 'majority minority' city in an area pretty heavily represented by Democrats.

[Sunlei]

5. Thank you President Obama. I wish they'd hurry and crews of plumbers start to work.

[Leith]

6. They Should Have Started a Couple Years Ago

Like they did in Lansing.

Now let's do it for the unsung cities around the country that have lead in their water that don't have the promotion.

Don't get mad at me for saying that - I'm from Flint. Everyone should have clean water.

[Tanuki]

7. Good point....there are "thousands of Flints" all across the country.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/thousands-of-u-s-areas-afflicted-with-lead-poisoning-beyond-flints/

....."Flint is no aberration. In fact, it doesn't even rank among the most dangerous lead hotspots in America.
In all, Reuters found nearly 3,000 areas with recently recorded lead poisoning rates at least double those in Flint during the peak of that city's contamination crisis. And more than 1,100 of these communities had a rate of elevated blood tests at least four times higher.
The poisoned places on this map stretch from Warren, Pennsylvania, a town on the Allegheny River where 36 percent of children tested had high lead levels, to a zip code on Goat Island, Texas, where a quarter of tests showed poisoning. In some pockets of Baltimore, Cleveland and Philadelphia, where lead poisoning has spanned generations, the rate of elevated tests over the last decade was 40-50 percent.
Like Flint, many of these localities are plagued by legacy lead: crumbling paint, plumbing, or industrial waste left behind. Unlike Flint, many have received little attention or funding to combat poisoning.

......

"The disparities you've found between different areas have stark implications," said Dr. Helen Egger, chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center's Child Study Center. "Where lead poisoning remains common, many children will have developmental delays and start out behind all the rest."
In children up to age 6, the CDC threshold for an elevated blood lead level is 5 micrograms per deciliter. Any child who tests high warrants a public health response, the agency says; even a slight elevation can reduce IQ and stunt development.
.....

"I hope this data spurs questions from the public to community leaders who can make changes," said epidemiologist Robert Walker, co-chair of the CDC's Lead Content Work Group, which analyzes lead poisoning nationwide. "I would think that it would turn some heads."
The findings, Walker said, will help inform the public about risks in their own neighborhoods and allow health officials to seek lead abatement grants in the most dangerous spots.
There isn't much federal help available. Congress recently directed $170 million in aid to Flint. That's 10 times the CDC's budget for assisting states with lead poisoning this
year.
..........

(Much more at link)

[Leith]

8. It's a Country Wide Catastrophe

The older the area's water pipes, the worse it is. rethugs are hardly even paying lip service to it. In Flint's case, they actively caused it. I grew up within walking distance of the Flint River. Anyone who thought to draw the city's water from that fetid sewer is insane.