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Flint Gov’t Employees Got Purified Water While Private Citizens Get None

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Chris White Tech Reporter
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Flint citizens gulped down river water they thought was safe last year, while public employees received bottles of purified water from Michigan state officials, according to state government emails unearthed by Progressive Michigan.

A 2015 notice from the department that oversees state government buildings — the Department of Technology, Management and Budget (DTMB) — mentions a violation of water standards in Flint. It also notes that because of the violations, the department would start dolling out water bottles to every government employee in state buildings.

“While the City of Flint states that corrective actions are not necessary, DTMB is in the process of providing a water cooler on each occupied floor, positioned near the water fountain, so you can choose which water to drink,” the notice states.

“The coolers will arrive today and will be provided as long as the public water does not meet treatment requirements,” the notice continues.

The water coolers and bottles were provided to employees in early January of last year as a reaction to the notice, Carl Caleb Buhs, the spokesman for DTMB, told The Detroit Free Press.

The government has continued to offer city employees purified water, Buhs said. He added that officials never told employees the water was unsafe to drink.

Progressive Michigan argued government officials — namely, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder — were protecting their own employees before looking out for Flint’s citizens.

“Sadly, the only response was to protect the Snyder administration from future liability and not to protect the children of Flint,” Lonnie Scott, the executive director of Progress Michigan, said.

“While residents were being told to relax and not worry about the water, the Snyder administration was taking steps to limit exposure in its own building,” Scott continued.

Included in the email thread found by Progressive Michigan is a message from district engineer with Detroit’s Department of Environmental Quality to Stephen Busch, the district supervisor, acknowledging regulator’s water quality concerns.

“Appears certain state departments are concerned with Flint’s WQ (water quality),” Prysby said in the e-mail to Busch. “I will return the call …”

Flint’s $1.1 billion unfunded legacy responsibilities and eroding population made funds for city services and day-to-day operations hard to come by in 2013. Making matters worse, the city was tasked with haggling over details laid out in its 30-year contact with its then-water supplier, Detroit Water and Sewage Department.

In 2014, government officials looked to save money by switching from Detroit to the Karegnondi Water Authority..

Government officials say the poisoning was a result of inadequate corrosion controls in the new system, causing the water pipelines’ joints and fixtures to corrode and leach into the drinking water. Kettering University, located in Flint, determined the lead-tainted water poisoned up to two percent of Flint citizens, including 23 children.

President Barack Obama pledged to grant $85 million and free Medicaid to every Flint citizen under the age of 21.

While city government employees were — to some degree — protected from Flint’s water supply, the city’s taxpayers, many of them poisoned, won’t have the option to sue the government that poisoned them.

This Week columnist Shikha Dalmia noted in an op-ed Friday, Flint citizens are legally prohibited from suing the government because of  doctrine of sovereign immunity, which protects governments from tort lawsuits.

Below is the notice DTMB sent to government:

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Tags : flint
Chris White