The culpability of Governor Snyder in the Flint water’s Lead poisoning is appalling.
The Flint Journal received some emails as far back as October 2015, seriously indicting the Governor on his decision with regard to the Lead poisonings. Snyder gave express instructions to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) to withhold Lead testing results, including those from a Flint elementary school, from local county health officials, while he considered the best way his administration could break the news to the public.
Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan is spearheading a campaign against the Governor, as he states:
“If there was any question as to whether the Snyder administration was more concerned about their public image or public health, this should provide a definitive answer,”
“Damage from lead poisoning is irreversible. Delaying the decision to alert the community to high levels of lead in their water for even a day is too long. The decision to delay the release of critical lead test information is a decision that children and families in Flint will have to live with for the rest of their lives. Snyder needs to confirm if this allegation is true and should release all emails from his administration immediately.”
In a counter-move, Snyder’s office stated on Feb. 10 that information was shared quickly after testing and denied that information was ever withheld.
Jim Henry, Genesee County’s environmental health supervisor in an interview stated:
“MDEQ explained that the Governor prohibited releasing all Genesee County lead results until after the press conference,”
Even the county officials didn’t have access to the results of the tests until after the news conference when they were distributed. He stated further:
“They should have alerted the schools and they didn’t.”
This situation is getting messier by the minute and the relevant authorities should wade in.
Image Credit: Sue Waters via Flickr Under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 Generic
