Gov. Rick Snyder will ask the state Legislature to kick in half of the $12 million needed to switch the city of Flint back to the Detroit water system. The rest of the cost will be shared by Flint and the C.S. Mott Foundation.
This follows months of complaints about the quality and safety of Flint's water which is currently being taken from the Flint River. Recent tests show elevated levels of lead in the drinking water, and that's being blamed for increasing lead levels in some Flint children.
Jennifer White was joined by Susan Demas, publisher of Inside Michigan Politics, and Ken Sikkema, former Senate Majority Leader and Senior Policy Fellow at Public Sector Consultants, to talk about the long term and political impacts of the Flint water crisis.
Demas and Sikkema agree that the switch back to Detroit water is just the beginning of repercussions for the state. Demas says she expects lawsuits against the state since the switch to the Flint River was made as a cost-saving measure while Flint was under state control.
Sikkema says he thinks the crisis will quickly lead to the development of new policies around water testing in Michigan schools. However, he also says the state is not prepared to handle the influx of testing demands from communities across Michigan that are now looking at their water more closely.
Here's their conversation:
