Six years ago this Saturday, Flint officials turned off their water supply from Detroit and allowed Flint River water to start flowing into homes. The rest is infamous: at least 12 died and up to 12,000 children were exposed to contaminated drinking water, while state officials ignored pleas for help.
Flint residents say they’re still awaiting justice, as no one has gone to prison for actions related to the crisis. Some fear the Attorney General’s office is running out of time to bring charges because the statute of limitations for most felonies is six years.
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Showing posts with label Flint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flint. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Michigan Sierra Club Announces Legislative Priorities for 2017-2018
Michigan Chapter
Legislative
Priorities for 2017-2018
Want to help us make these visions a reality? Take a minute to call your State Representative and State Senator - tell them which of our priorities you want them to work on.
Michigan currently obtains most of its electricity from fossil fuel sources such as coal and natural gas. These energy sources are highly polluting and are a large source of greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to climate change. However, clean energy such as solar, wind, and energy efficiency create green jobs, stabilize long-term energy prices, decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, and mitigate our impact on the climate. The Sierra Club supports policies that increase our use of clean energy, including but not limited to renewable energy standards, Energy Optimization Standards, clean contracts (setting a fair price to sell energy back to the grid), distributed generation (generating energy from small sources like rooftop solar), and expanding access to community clean energy projects. “Renewable” or “clean” energy should not be defined to include any fossil fuels, nuclear energy, incinerating waste, or unsustainable forms of biomass.
Fund Environmental Protection
Over the last decade, state funding for environmental protection has plummeted from about $100 million to $35 million. Aside from that, DEQ and DNR funding generated from fees and leases proves significant, but not adequate to support our environmental program. In addition, an over-reliance on permits and fees leads to these agencies being overly dependent on the industries they are monitoring. Combined, the budgets of these two agencies make up less than 1% of our state's allocations. Sierra Club strongly opposes efforts to further cut funding or keep it at the same levels because of its ability to significantly undermine environmental protection and community health. We support a steady increase in investment to the DEQ and DNR for the sake of safe drinking water, expanded recycling, recreation revenue, and the multitude of benefits these environmental programs offer. Our ground water, abundant surface waters, wetlands and shorelines are the foundation of our critically important tourism industry and our high quality of life.
Enact a Ban and Environmental Safeguards on Hydraulic Fracturing
The Michigan legislature must enact a Ban on High Volume Slickwater Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing; in the absence of a ban, we need a Michigan-specific framework to protect the public and our water resources. That framework should require gas companies to follow all state laws regarding water withdrawals – something they are currently exempt from. We should require gas companies to disclose up front all chemicals to be used in the drilling process. The permitting process must require full public participation, which currently does not exist. Fracking is too dangerous for the Great Lakes State and it stands in the way of making progress toward reducing the impacts of climate change and achieving true energy independence. In addition to fracking, we need to ensure that other oil and gas extraction technologies such as acidization and well flooding are adequately regulated and monitored to avoid adverse impacts on our water resources and public health.
Defend Michigan’s Public Lands and Natural Resources
Even though our economy is struggling, the state’s travel and tourism business constantly flourishes, generating $955 million state tax revenue and employing 200,000 people. Michigan’s public lands and natural resources are essential to supporting tourism and should be properly managed to deliver the Pure Michigan promise. The Sierra Club fights for protection of public lands, a sustainable forestry plan, the use of biodiversity as an ecological goal, and the ability of the Department of Natural Resources to own and manage public land.
Mitigate Michigan’s Pipeline Problems
The Great Lakes and Michigan’s inland water bodies are threatened by aging pipelines and new pipeline proposals all across the state, carrying both oil and natural gas. Eminent domain is also causing conflicts between property owners and companies trying to build new pipelines. The legislature should enact laws to increase pipeline safety, disclosure, and emergency spill response planning. The Sierra Club is specifically working to stop the flow of oil through the Mackinac Straits carried by Enbridge’s Line 5 pipelines.
Protect Water Resources
Our Great Lakes hold one fifth of the world’s fresh surface water, but are threatened economically and ecologically by untreated sewage, industrial pollutants, invasive species, factory farm pollution, habitat loss, nutrient runoff, and degradation. The Sierra Club supports policies that make sure we have safe, clean, and affordable water such as banning aquaculture in the Great Lakes, banning the application of factory farm waste on frozen or snow-covered ground, investing in green infrastructure, sustainable wastewater and water infrastructure, and keeping public control of Michigan’s water. The Michigan legislature must enact laws that will reduce agricultural nutrient pollution which leads to toxic algae blooms in the Great Lakes.
End Environmental Injustice
Sierra Club believes that all people, regardless of racial/ethnic identity or socio-economic status, have a right to a clean and healthy environment and the right to effectively participate in their government to achieve that end. No communities should bear disproportionate amounts of pollution because of their demographics or socio-economic status. Local citizens who deal with this pollution on a daily basis must be given a voice and empowered to defend their communities. The lead contamination of drinking water in Flint that resulted from negligence and criminal conduct involving state officials demands justice for Flint residents in the form of safe, affordable drinking water and long-term response and support related to the health, education and economic impacts on the community. The Legislature and Governor must take responsibility for replacing all lead water pipes in Flint and appropriate the funds needed to fulfill this obligation. The full text of the Sierra Club’s Environmental Justice policy can be found at: http://www.sierraclub.org/policy/environmental-justice
Restore Citizen Oversight and Public Participation
For too long, concerned citizens have been ignored by our State Government. Lawmakers should restore accountability by reinstating independent, transparent bodies to oversee the DEQ and DNR like the bipartisan Water Resources Commission and Air Pollution Control Commission from the 1970’s and 1980’s. These would be made up of a balanced cross section of representatives of the general public, science, regulated industries and agencies. These bodies would oversee all aspects of the regulation, permitting and enforcement, providing an on-going public forum for both victims of pollution and those concerned about agency overreach to have their complaints reviewed and responded to.
Expand Access to Public/Mass Transit
The Sierra Club supports transportation policy and systems that minimize the impacts on and use of land, airspace and waterways, minimizes the consumption of fuel, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. We support transportation planning that takes into account pedestrians, bicyclists and transit users. The full text of the Sierra Club’s Transportation policy can be found at: http://www.sierraclub.org/policy/transportation
Improve Access to Democracy
We are facing many proposals that would make it harder for individuals to vote, increase the role of money in politics, and decrease political campaign finance transparency. Lawmakers currently design their legislative district boundaries in a partisan way that undermines public confidence in government and reduces accountability to constituents. These proposals make it harder for individual citizens and the Sierra Club to be heard by elected officials. The Sierra Club advocates for getting the money out of politics, allowing no-reason absentee voting, increasing government/campaign transparency, creating an unbiased redistricting process, and stopping voter suppression.
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Activists say state doing too little to help Flint
Paul Egan , Detroit Free Press 2:27 p.m. EDT October 5, 2016
LANSING — A small group of Flint residents came to Lansing on Wednesday to mark the one-year anniversary of Gov. Rick Snyder’s acknowledgement of the lead contamination of the city’s drinking water, arguing that the state and federal government are not doing enough to replace the city’s lead pipes.
Flint activists Melissa Mays of Water You Fighting For and Nakiya Wakes and Nayyirah Shariff of Flint Rising said many residents still don’t have access to properly installed and maintained lead filters and many others who do have filters don’t trust the devices to deliver safe water.
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Thursday, September 8, 2016
DEQ spokesman who urged Flint to 'relax' lands new job
LANSING — A former spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality who resigned over the Flint drinking water crisis has joined the Lansing lobbying corps.
Brad Wurfel, who said last summer that Flint residents worried about lead contamination of their water should "relax," registered as a lobbyist in July and is working for the Lansing firm of Kandler Reed Khoury & Muchmore, records show.
"I work with a wide range of clients to help them address challenges and find more effective ways to communicate," Wurfel said about his new job, in an updated posting on his LinkedIn page.
Wurfel did not return a phone message from the Free Press.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Monday, June 27, 2016
Email shows top doc got early warning on Legionnaires'
Chad Livengood, Detroit News Lansing Bureau 9:12 a.m. EDT June 27, 2016
(Photo: fordschool.umich.edu)
Lansing — The state’s top doctor was among high-level Michigan health officials briefed about a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Genesee County nearly one year before it was publicly disclosed, state records show.
Dr. Matthew Davis, who served on Gov. Rick Snyder’s Flint water task force, has previously denied having any knowledge of the Legionnaires’ outbreak prior to his April 2015 departure from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services as the state’s chief medical executive.
But Davis was a recipient of a Jan. 28, 2015, email sent to top DHHS officials sounding alarms about the respiratory disease infection outbreak in the Flint area — an outbreak that ended up killing 12 people in a span of 18 months in 2014 and 2015. The email was part of more than 303,000 pages of records about Flint’s water crisis the Snyder administration released publicly last week.
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Saturday, June 25, 2016
Nestlé Pumps Millions of Gallons for Free While Flint Pays for Poisoned Water
As Flint residents are forced to drink, cook with and even bathe in bottled water, while still paying some of the highest water bills in the country for their poisoned water, we turn to a little-known story about the bottled water industry in Michigan.
In 2001 and 2002, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issued permits to Nestlé, the largest water bottling company in the world, to pump up to 400 gallons of water per minute from aquifers that feed Lake Michigan. This sparked a decade-long legal battle between Nestlé and the residents of Mecosta County, Michigan, where Nestlé’s wells are located. One of the most surprising things about this story is that, in Mecosta County, Nestlé is not required to pay anything to extract the water, besides a small permitting fee to the state and the cost of leases to a private landowner. In fact, the company received $13 million in tax breaks from the state to locate the plant in Michigan.
The spokesperson for Nestlé in Michigan is Deborah Muchmore. She’s the wife of Dennis Muchmore—Governor Rick Snyder’s chief of staff, who just retired and registered to be a lobbyist. More ...
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Monday, March 28, 2016
Does MDEQ put economic growth ahead of people?
In the public health crisis over the lead contamination of the City of Flint's drinking water, a cascade of culpability has been leveled at federal, state and local officials. But, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has borne much of the blame.
In his testimony before a congressional committee on March 17, Gov. Rick Snyder said his administration's investigations into the crisis, "uncovered systemic failures" at the DEQ
"The fact is, bureaucrats created a culture that valued technical compliance over common sense — and the result was that lead was leaching into residents’ water," Snyder said.
But Flint wasn't the first time the DEQ took that approach. And as public anger and outcry over the crisis continues to grow, more scrutiny is being heaped on to the DEQ and its processes and mission, which critics say values business over people.
More ...
"The fact is, bureaucrats created a culture that valued technical compliance over common sense — and the result was that lead was leaching into residents’ water," Snyder said.
But Flint wasn't the first time the DEQ took that approach. And as public anger and outcry over the crisis continues to grow, more scrutiny is being heaped on to the DEQ and its processes and mission, which critics say values business over people.
More ...
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Friday, January 29, 2016
A Special Message About Flint from Sierra Club Michigan
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