LANSING, Mich. (AP) – Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder asked President Barack Obama on Wednesday to reconsider his denial of a federal disaster declaration to address the drinking water crisis in Flint, saying its severity poses an “imminent and long-term threat” to residents.
Obama declared an emergency – qualifying the city for $5 million – but determined it is not a disaster based on the legal requirement that such additional relief is intended for natural events, fires, floods or explosions. Snyder had estimated a need for up to $95 million over a year.
In his appeal letter – sent the same day Obama was in Detroit for the North American International Auto Show – Snyder called the decision a “narrow reading” and likened the crisis to a flood, “given that qualities within the water, over a long term, flood and damaged the city’s infrastructure in ways that were not immediately or easily detectable. This disaster is a natural catastrophe in the sense that lead contamination into water is a natural process.”
He said the state and city cannot meet all the needs of Flint residents. He again painted a bleak picture of the city and said the “economic injury” from the crisis is significant. Snyder said the disaster will lead to years, potentially decades of health problems and economic losses as well as infrastructure repairs that “neither the city, county or state have the capacity to conduct.”
The second-term Republican, who devoted his annual State of the State speech Tuesday night to the emergency in Flint, planned Wednesday to release his own emails regarding Flint’s water, which became contaminated with too much lead when the city switched its water source in 2014 as a cost-cutting measure while under state financial management.