LANSING, Mich. -- Amid the efforts going towards helping the people of Flint, Gov. Rick Snyder's office continues to take heat for not presenting a plan or timeline for upgrading the city's lead-contaminated pipes. State lawmakers said it's not easy fix.
"In this appropriation, we made money available to do a study of the infrastructure in Flint to see what pipes need to be replaced," said Al Pscholka, a Republican state representative from Stevensville. "If they need to be replaced, there needs to be a lot of work that goes into that before you just start ripping things out of the ground."
"I can't really speak to the science of it, but I do understand the philosophy in which some pipes can be restored to provide good services," said Sheldon Neely, Democratic state representative from Flint. "But we also know that some pipes will need to be replaced to provide safe and affordable service. So I think it's a combination of both."
Lawmakers in Washington D.C. are also looking to help get that ball rolling. Thursday morning, Senate Democrats presented a proposal to give Michigan up to $400 million in federal funding to fix and replace pipes contaminated by lead. Added to a proposed energy bill, the amendment also gives the state $20 million a year to keep an eye on lead exposure in Flint and requires the federal government to intervene if something like this happens again.
"We haven't seen this kind of... these levels of exposure before," U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said. "There's a lot of questions about impact, and heaven help us if there's ever an emergency like this again. The people of Flint want to be able to help those in the future through research and information gathering about what's happening and the best ways to handle it."
They're hoping the bipartisan efforts we're witnessing here in Michigan over this calamity will resonate in Washington D.C.
"The whole country needs to band together along with the state of Michigan to solve this humanitarian crisis as quickly as possible," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York. "This amendment is immediate this need is immediate and putting it on the energy bill is timely and appropriate anyway hope we will get bipartisan and broad support."
