LANSING, Mich. (AP) \u2014 Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday released his emails related to Flint\u2019s drinking water and asked President Barack Obama to reconsider the denial of a federal disaster declaration to address the crisis, saying its poses an \u201cimminent and long-term threat\u201d to residents.<\/p>\n
Obama declared an emergency \u2014 qualifying the city for $5 million \u2014 but concluded that the dangerously high lead levels in the city\u2019s water system are not a disaster based on the legal requirement that disaster money is intended for natural events such as fires or floods. Snyder had estimated a need for up to $95 million over a year.<\/p>\n
In his appeal letter, Snyder called the decision a \u201cnarrow reading\u201d and likened the crisis to a flood, \u201cgiven that qualities within the water, over a long term, damaged the city\u2019s infrastructure in ways that were not immediately or easily detectable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crisis \u201cis a natural catastrophe in the sense that lead contamination into water is a natural process,\u201d the governor wrote.<\/p>\n
Flint\u2019s water became contaminated with lead when the city switched its water source in 2014 as a cost-cutting measure while under the city was under state financial management.<\/p>\n
The governor said the state and city cannot meet all the needs of Flint residents and painted a bleak picture of the city. He predicted that the crisis will lead to years, potentially decades, of health problems and economic losses, as well as infrastructure repairs that neither the city, county nor state can afford.<\/p>\n
The second-term Republican, who devoted his annual State of the State speech Tuesday to Flint, released the emails late Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry most of all that I let you down,\u201d Snyder said in the address as hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside the Capitol. \u201cYou deserve better. You deserve accountability. You deserve to know that the buck stops here with me. Most of all, you deserve to know the truth, and I have a responsibility to tell the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lead\u2014 which can lead to behavior problems and learning disabilities in children and kidney ailments in adults \u2014 has left Flint residents unable to drink unfiltered tap water. The National Guard, state employees, local authorities and volunteers have been distributing lead tests, filters and bottled water. Snyder aides pledged that by the end of the week officials would visit every household in Flint to ensure they have water filters.<\/p>\n
Democrats said Snyder only recently acknowledged the magnitude of the fiasco, at least three months too late.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the kind of disaster, the kind of failure to deliver basic services that hurts people\u2019s trust in government,\u201d House Minority Leader Tim Greimel said.<\/p>\n
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver refused to call for Snyder\u2019s resignation while at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, D.C., saying investigations should go forward. She said she wants Snyder to give Flint \u201cthe services and the money, the funds that we need to address the population.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have said how they want things handled with him,\u201d Weaver said Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m staying focused on what I need to get from him right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his speech, Snyder committed $28 million more in the short term to pay for more filters, bottled water, school nurses, intervention specialists, testing and monitoring \u2014 on top of $10.6 million allocated in the fall. The money also would replace plumbing fixtures in schools with lead problems and could help Flint with unpaid water bills.<\/p>\n
The new round of funding, which requires approval from the GOP-led Legislature, is intended as another short-range step while Snyder works to get a better handle on the long-range costs.<\/p>\n
The Michigan House on Wednesday approved Snyder\u2019s request for the $28 million. The measure moves to the Senate for expected action next week.<\/p>\n
Snyder plans to make a bigger request in his February budget proposal. He also announced the deployment of roughly 130 more National Guard members to the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo you, the people of Flint, I say tonight as I have before: I am sorry, and I will fix it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Michigan\u2019s top environmental regulator Dan Wyant resigned over the failure to ensure that the Flint River water was properly treated to keep lead from pipes from leaching into the water. Elevated blood-lead levels were found in two city zip codes.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Justice Department is helping the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate, and GOP state Attorney General Bill Schuette has opened his own probe, which could focus on whether environmental laws were broken or if there was official misconduct. The EPA is under scrutiny for its role, too.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press Writer Jesse Holland contributed from Washington.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Follow David Eggert at http:\/\/twitter.com\/DavidEggert00 . His work can be found at http:\/\/bigstory.ap.org\/author\/david-eggert .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LANSING, Mich. (AP) \u2014 Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday released his emails related to Flint\u2019s drinking water and asked President Barack Obama to reconsider the denial of a federal disaster declaration to address the crisis, saying its poses an \u201cimminent and long-term threat\u201d to residents. Obama declared an emergency \u2014 qualifying the city for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-12104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12104"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}