Under an intense amount of pressure from his state, Governor Rick Snyder released 273 pages of e-mails and documents Wednesday night. This stems from the local tap water malfunction in Flint, Michigan where the water contains unusually high levels of lead. The issue has been ongoing for several years after the city decided to retrieve its water from the local river. It has finally reached a point where the federal government has had to step in and provide aid.
The governor's office claims that the local city officials are to blame because they are dodging handling the issue themselves.
"The DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) and DCH (Department of Community Health) feel that some in Flint are taking the very sensitive issue of children's exposure to lead and trying to turn it into a political football claiming the departments are underestimating the impacts on the populations and particularly trying to shift responsibility to the state," wrote Dennis Muchmore, Snyder's former chief of staff.
"The real responsibility rests with the county, city and KWA (Karegnondi Water Authority), but since the issue here is the health of citizens and their children we're taking a proactive approach putting DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services) out there as an educator," he said.
The community about 75 miles north of Detroit, has about 100,000 residents, with about 40 percent of them living below the poverty line. The population is nearly 60 percent black.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member