LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan lawmakers reviewing the lead contamination of Flint's drinking water supply will turn to proposing recommendations, including changes to the state's contentious emergency manager law, after two months of investigative hearings concluded Tuesday.
The Republican chairman of a special legislative committee said the panel is likely to urge revisions to the law, though he declined to elaborate. The committee wrapped up without calling Gov. Rick Snyder and some other key figures, including any of Flint's emergency managers, to testify.
Sen. Jim Stamas of Midland said it is clear that Michigan and local governments must do better at adequately paying to upgrade aging drinking water and sewer systems across the state, not just in Flint, where the 100,000 residents are using faucet filters and bottled water while living under a months-long emergency.
The panel was told Tuesday by a construction group that at least $284 million to $563 million more is needed annually for drinking water infrastructure statewide.
Michigan's 2012 emergency management law, which the GOP-led Legislature quickly approved after voters repealed a 2011 version, lets the state exert near-total control over distressed cities and school districts under certain circumstances. It was blamed as a factor in the Flint crisis by a task force appointed by Snyder, who supports the law but has acknowledged it failed Flint.
The contamination occurred when the city, which was under emergency management at the time, switched in 2014 from the metropolitan Detroit utility system to a temporary water source, the Flint River, until it could connect to the new pipeline. State environmental regulators mistakenly told the city not to add a chemical to prevent lead from leaching out of old pipes, and state emergency managers later came under scrutiny for blocking a switch back for financial reasons.
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http://www.hickoryrecord.com/news/us/ap/state-lawmakers-end-flint-hearings-turn-to-recommendations/article_9542884d-04b2-5321-ac62-ed0780ae1e91.html
