‘I let you down.’ Michigan governor apologizes for Flint water crisis [TR]

WASHINGTON POST ^ | 20 JANUARY 2016 | MARK BERMAN

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder apologized to the residents of Flint for a water crisis that has prompted outrage, federal scrutiny and lawsuits, vowing to seek long-term assistance for the city’s residents.

In his State of the State address on Tuesday night, Snyder said he was asking state lawmakers for $28 million to help residents reeling after Flint’s drinking water became contaminated with dangerously high levels of lead. He also vowed to release his emails related to Flint from 2014 and 2015.

[cripplecreek]

There's some blame there but its minimal. He appointed an idiot but it seems that the EPA was quite happy to let things go to hell before deciding to do something about it.



Michigan legislative action thread

[refermech]

What is dangerously high? a few parts per billion? Throw a ton of money at it right away.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

It's too late. He apologized and begged the media/Dems not to scalp him. So now this election cycle will be how Republicans want to poison kids and we need to spend trillions on more environmental crap.

God, I hate Republicans.

[Revel]

As I understand it was at least 10 times the max contaminant level allowed.

[hoagy62]

Have you SEEN the water? It’s coming out orange. I damned sure wouldn’t drink it!

[Hot Tabasco]

This is a Flint and democrat controlled city’s problem, not a state problem........Snyder’s offer of an apology does nothing but admit blame where no blame exists and gives democrats more fuel to blame Republicans for everything in the next election...

[montag813]

Didn’t the BLACK MAYOR of Flint “let them down”? It was she and her majority-minority council which switched water supplies to save money.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Ugh. No. Another Republican who doesn’t understand how the Dems and their press goons play the game. They are going to beat him over the head with this now and the EPA will be off the hook.

[Night Hides Not]

His biggest error was not keeping his appointee’s feet to the fire. This crap has been known for over a year. As the chief executive of the state, it’s his job to manage the situation

[Domangart]

I have to pay for my water. Let the UAW pay for this mess. Every place that has been run by rats for a long time has been ran into the ground. None of these a holes have ever looked at a block and asked when and at what cost will the current method of city planning cost. Their idea is to build malls for taxes.

[cripplecreek]

Syder can’t run again anyway so there was no reason to beg forgiveness.

However he is an “Ann Arbor Republican”.

[Homer1]

The EPA sat on this for months

[refermech]

Orange would be rust. Not saying there isn’t a problem, just that everything is a crisis these days.

[Vinnie]

What is the contamination level?
One of the last ‘gifts’ Slick left for Dubya was a change in the acceptable levels of some contaminations from PPM to PPB.

[House Atreides]

This is a Flint and democrat controlled city’s problem, not a state problem........Snyder’s offer of an apology does nothing but admit blame where no blame exists and gives democrats more fuel to blame Republicans for everything in the next election...
******************************************************************************
He, in essense, PULLED A ‘NICKI HALEY’.

[cymbeline]

Where is the bad water coming from. Was it a household water supply anywhere else?

Testing that water for pollutants such as lead is simple. I think the water in my city’s water supply is tested daily.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder apologized to the residents of Flint for a water crisis that has prompted outrage, federal scrutiny and lawsuits, vowing to seek long-term assistance for the city's residents.

As I understand it, the city of Flint started using water from the Flint river as a cost-saving measure for several years - the city has huge pension obligations to former city employees. The river water caused corrosion in Flint's lead pipes, and we have the current situation.

So why doesn't this governor point out the fact that this entire situation was caused by unionized city employees and their Democratic Party enablers? Why is he apologizing instead of condemning the Democrats who caused this situation? Can anyone imagine Donald Trump not calling out the source of the problem here?

This is exactly why Trump is succeeding and why the GOP needs to stop running away from him and start emulating him.

[Royal Wulff]

The water was treated improperly and was too acidic. This caused rust from iron pipes and lead from lead pipes to get into the water. If the pH were higher, there would have been no problems.

So, it’s basically incompetence at the city level.

The use of Flint river water was supposed to be a temporary stopgap measure while a new pipeline was being constructed.

[Royal Wulff]

The water was fine. It was treated improperly and the low pH caused rust and lead to get into the water from service lines (some of which are lead, which is perfectly safe if the water pH is high enough.)