Skip to footer

Obama signs emergency order over Flint water

The declaration authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide water, filters, cartridges, and other items to Flint residents for 90 days.

|
Rebecca Cook/Reuters
Michigan National Guard Staff Sergeant William Phillips assists a Flint resident with bottled water at a fire station in the city. President Obama declared a state of emergency in Michigan on Saturday.
  • By Jeff Karoub Associated Press

| Detroit

President Obama signed an emergency declaration Saturday for Flint, Mich., that clears the way for federal aid for the city, which is undergoing a drinking water crisis.

The White House issued a release calling for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to "alleviate the hardship and suffering" on residents. Flint switched water supplies in 2014, and the corrosive water from the Flint River leached lead from old pipes.

FEMA has been authorized to provide water, filters, cartridges, and other items for 90 days. Direct federal funding also will be made available.

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder requested the declaration late Thursday, saying needs "far exceed the state's capability," and added that emergency measures could cost $41 million. His letter to Mr. Obama painted a bleak picture of the troubled city, describing Flint as an "impoverished area" that has been overwhelmed by the release of lead from old pipes.

The tap water in Flint, population 99,000, became contaminated after the city switched its water supply from the Detroit water system to the Flint River while a pipeline to Lake Huron is under construction. The corrosive water lacked adequate treatment and caused lead to leach from old pipes in homes and schools.

Flint returned to the Detroit system in October after elevated lead levels were discovered in children, and could tap into the new pipeline by summer.

But officials remain concerned that damaged pipes could continue to leach lead, to which exposure can cause behavior problems and learning disabilities in children as well as kidney ailments in adults.

The National Guard has been distributing free water, filters, and other supplies.

Members of Michigan's congressional delegation applauded the move. Democratic US Sen. Debbie Stabenow said she will push for long-term resources, and Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee said residents "deserve every resource available to make sure they have safe water and are able to recover from this terrible man-made disaster created by the state."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Obama signs emergency order over Flint water
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2016/0116/Obama-signs-emergency-order-over-Flint-water
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe