Flint Water

Gov. Rick Snyder announces support of the city of Flint's plan to switch back to Detroit water due to high lead levels during a news conference with Mayor Dayne Walling in Flint on Thursday Oct. 8, 2015.

(MLive.com files)

LANSING, MI -- Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Thursday signed a supplemental spending bill that includes $9.35 million to address a public health crisis in Flint linked to high lead levels in drinking water.

The governor wasted little time with the bill, signing it just hours after it had won unanimous approval in the Senate and one day after unanimous approval in the House.

"This funding is a coordinated response to a serious problem and I'm pleased so many parties came together to help deliver safe drinking water to the city of Flint," Snyder said in a statement.

The bulk of the funding -- $6 million -- will help Flint reconnect to Detroit water until a new Lake Huron pipeline is complete. The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has committed another $4 million, and the cash-strapped city is paying the remaining $2 million.

"Reconnecting to the Great Lakes Water Authority is only the first step, as the state will continue testing and inspections to ensure Flint families and children have clean water in their homes and schools," the governor said.

Flint, operating under a state-appointed emergency manager at the time, began supplying residents with Flint River water in April of 2014. Scientists have since discovered elevated lead levels in drinking water and the blood of children.

The river water has been blamed for exacerbating corrosion in aging pipes, and toxic lead levels have been detected in drinking water in three Flint schools, according to state officials.

The spending proposal would appropriate $1 million to Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for laboratory analysis of drinking water samples in Flint. Another $1 million would cover the costs of water filters provided to Flint residents.

The bill includes $850,000 to fund additional state and local services in the city, such as screening for abnormal blood lead levels, lead hazard identification and follow-up care for affected children.

Another $300,000 would help fund home and school water connections in Flint, and $200,000 would support plumbing inspections in educational and health facilities.

Of the $9.35 million appropriation to benefit Flint, $7.15 million would come out of the state's general fund, while $2.2 million would come from other restricted sources, including an available balance in a DEQ settlement fund.

Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, in a statement released earlier Thursday, had thanked the Legislature for taking "swift and decisive" action for Flint residents.

"We can now move to secure a reconnection to Detroit and provide Lake Huron water until the KWA pipeline can be completed next year," he said.

State Sen. Jim Ananich, a Flint Democrat who worked with Snyder to secure the funding, said he was grateful to his colleagues for approving the plan but frustrated that it took legislative action to ensure safe, clean drinking water for city residents.

"Today's vote was a necessary fix to a problem that never should have happened," he said in a statement.

Flint plans to switch off of Detroit water and join a regional authority building the new pipeline were put in motion before Snyder appointed an emergency financial manager to run the city.

But there is no record that Flint City Council voted to use the river as a short-term drinking water source, according to The Flint Journal, and those contracts were ultimately signed by emergency managers.

"As we move forward, I am committed to finding out how, in 2015, an entire city was poisoned by its own drinking water," Ananich said. "A simple report will not cover it. We need to know who knew what, when they knew it, and what, if anything, they did to fix it."

Jonathan Oosting is a Capitol reporter for MLive Media Group. Email him, find him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.