this story was actually picked up on the national news last week and carried
all over California.
Chuck
From: joe harcz Comcast
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2016 4:55 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] stupid is as stupid does
BTW this is my local "State Office building" with DHHS, Services for VR, Blind
and Social Security. It is also one of the buildings out of ADA compliance
twenty five years after the passage of the ADA. But, frankly my dears they
don't give a shit.
Joe
State: Flint water coolers were also for public use
Paul Egan,
Detroit Free Press 9:57 p.m. EST January 29, 2016
635896863035459514-Flint-water-tower.jpgBuy Photo
The state said Friday that purified water it sent to Flint state offices in
January of 2015 was for use by the public, not just state employees.(Photo:
Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo
LANSING — Coolers full of purified water the state placed in its Flint State
Office Building in January 2015 were available for use by members of the public,
not just state employees who worked in Flint, a government spokesman said
Friday.
Caleb Buhs, a spokesman for the Department of Technology, Management and
Budget, also said that while the state has paid to rent the water coolers
continuously
since January 2015, the coolers weren't refilled between July — when he said
health concerns about the quality of Flint's drinking water began to subside
— and October, when water purchases resumed.
The water cooler on each floor was placed in a common area of the Flint State
Office Building that visitors as well as workers had access to, Buhs said.
A Free Press reporter confirmed Friday that was the case on the first floor and
the fifth floor, but did not check every floor. Visitors to the building
must sign in on the main floor and tell a security officer where they are going.
Despite the clarifications from Buhs, criticism of the state continued Friday
after
a Free Press report
said the state purchased purified water for state employees in Flint while
telling Flint residents the tap water was safe to drink. After months of denial,
state officials confirmed around Oct. 1 that Flint drinking water was
contaminated with lead, a powerful neurotoxin.
"I was very surprised," said state Rep. Sheldon Neeley, D-Flint.
"It just shows that inside some state departments, they had knowledge of
something going on," but only "certain people," such as state employees, were
protected,
he said.
Buhs said the purchase of purified water was prompted by a city warning around
Jan. 1, 2015 that total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), a by-product of the chlorine
disinfectants added to the water to kill the bacteria, had exceeded federal
limits in 2014. Though the notice said "corrective actions are not necessary,"
Buhs said it also advised that those with severely compromised immune systems,
infants, or elderly people were more vulnerable.
"Many of the DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services) clients that
entered the building were members of those groups," Buhs said.
"The water was made available for the public clients doing business in the
building just as much as the employees."
Neeley said what Buhs is saying makes no sense. If the state was legitimately
concerned about vulnerable people, it would have cordoned off the water
fountains
in the State Office Building, not give vulnerable people a choice of drinking
tap water from the fountains or purified water from the coolers, he said.
Gov. Rick Snyder told the Associated Press on Friday he didn't know anything
about the water purchases.
The state has spent about $4,200 since January 2015 on purified water for the
State Office Building, Buhs said. State employees who work in Lansing or
buildings
elsewhere in the state don't have water purchased for them, he said.
Flint drinking water became contaminated by lead in April 2014 while the city
was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager. Under what
was to be a temporary, cost-cutting move while the city awaited completion of a
new pipeline to Lake Huron, it switched its source of supply from Lake
Huron water treated by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to Flint River
water treated at the Flint water treatment plant.
The state Department of Environmental Quality has acknowledged it failed to
require needed corrosion-control chemicals to be added to the water. As a
result,
the corrosive river water caused lead to leach from pipes, joints and fixtures
into an unknown number of Flint households. Flint customers were switched
back to Detroit in October, but the potential danger persists because of damage
to the water distribution infrastructure.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Follow him on Twitter
@paulegan4.
Source:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/01/29/state-flint-water-coolers-were-also-public-use/79531894/
