Legislators take action to fix Flint water supply

LANSING — The Michigan Legislature is beginning to take notice of the ongoing controversy surrounding Flint’s water system, which has been plagued by problems with discoloration and foul smells since the city disconnected from the Detroit water system and began pulling its water supply from the Flint River.

The state Senate approved a supplemental appropriations bill that included a $100 placeholder while the state looks for a solution to the water issue.

“We want to make sure we have an accurate number. We didn’t want to put too much in or not enough,” said state Sen. Jim Ananich, D-Flint. “We want to get an accurate understanding of what it’s going to cost to get us the help that we need.”

The appropriation comes on the heels of Gov. Rick Snyder telling reporters on Wednesday that he’ll have some more answers on the state’s role in fixing Flint’s water problems by the end of the week. The state Departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services is scheduled to hold a news conference at 1:30 p.m. in Flint Friday to discuss a comprehensive plan to deal with Flint's controversial water system.

It also occurred as the Genesee County Board of Commissioners and Health Department issued an emergency advisory to Flint residents on Thursday, telling them to refrain from drinking the city water unless it was filtered through a certified filtration device or had been tested and showed that it doesn't contain elevated lead levels.

"Since no safe level (of lead) has been identified, it is in everyone’s interest to reduce exposure to lead as much as possible," the emergency advisory stated.

Jamie Curtis, chairman of the commissioners, said they had little choice. Curtis said he had asked the state last week for a response after a Hurley Medical Center pediatrician reported that blood-lead levels had jumped in Flint children since the city began pulling water from the Flint River.

But instead of hearing from the state, he read in the Free Press Wednesday that Gov. Rick Snyder publicly acknowledged that Flint's water supply "appears" to have problems. That, Curtis said, was in conflict with assurances from state officials earlier this year that the water was safe.

“It wasn’t our fight,” Curtis said of the decision to change water systems in 2014 and to temporarily pull water from the Flint River. “I (couldn’t) care less who’s at fault ... but now we need to deal with this health issue. In six years I don’t want 5- and 6-year-olds going to school with lead poisoning.”

An anonymous benefactor and the state have begun distributing water filters to Flint residents in recent weeks after the Hurley doctor spotted what she said are increasing lead levels in Flint children. The state has spent $4.2 million already this year, said Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel, including $2 million from the distressed communities grant program for water infrastructure work and some help with bonding that helped save the city another $2.2 million.

“We’ve been actively working that issue for a significant period of time and providing additional resources recently,” Snyder said. “I would expect us to have more to talk about by the end of the week, and how we’re partnering with Flint and the federal government on this.”

In 2014, city officials ended the city's contract with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, saying that water costs were too high. They opted instead to pull from the Karegnondi Water Authority, which is building a system to supply Genesee County with water pulled from Lake Huron. In the long run, this will mean lower water costs, officials have said, adding that water from the Detroit system will cost $1.5 million more a month than the city is paying now.

But until the new system comes online in 2016, Flint is temporarily pulling water from the Flint River. Since it made the switch, residents have complained that the water smells, is discolored and makes them sick.

And the Hurley researcher recently found that the number of Flint children with elevated blood-lead levels — 5 micrograms per deciliter or more — jumped from 2.1% in the 20 months prior to Sept. 15, 2013, to 4.0% between Jan. 1 and Sept. 15 this year. In certain ZIP codes, the change was even more troubling, she said — jumping from 2.5% of the children tested to 6.3%.

Ananich said filters need to be made available to affected residents, especially vulnerable citizens like children and senior citizens, and the corrosion in the water system pipes needs to be addressed.

“And I think we need to move to a new water source, potentially going back to Detroit,” he said. “Filters can do a lot of good, corrosion control can do some good. But a new water source has to happen and it has to happen soon.”

In addition to the action at the state level, the Flint-based Coalition for Clean Water, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, and the Natural Resources Defense Council has petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take emergency action to ensure that Flint has safe drinking water. The petition urges the EPA to reconnect Flint to the Detroit water system and provide safe water to city residents until that can happen.

“Flint city officials, state-appointed emergency managers and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality have all failed monumentally in their duty to provide the people of Flint with clean, safe drinking water. Now that the truth is revealed, further action is imperative,” said Kary L. Moss, ACLU of Michigan executive director, in a statement.

In addition to the money for the Flint water issue, the appropriations bill approved by the Senate also included a $7.7-million settlement of a lawsuit filed by a Flint woman whose car was hit by a Michigan State Police trooper who was pursuing a driver who refused to stop for a seat-belt violation.

The woman and her daughter were injured in the July 3, 2014, crash and another passenger, Jacqueline Nichols, 64, of Flint, was killed. Trooper Timothy Fagin received undisclosed discipline after the crash and remains a state trooper.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 517-372-8661, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal. Free Press staff writer Robin Erb contributed to this report. ​