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Michigan Governor's Flint Task Force Releases Report On Water Crisis

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

State government is primarily responsible for Flint, Mich.'s lead-contaminated water system. That's the finding of a new report released today. It comes from a task force appointed by the governor. Michigan Radio's Lindsey Smith reports it's no surprise that the state's environmental regulators get most of the blame.

LINDSEY SMITH, BYLINE: A preliminary version of this report led to regulators' resignations back in December. It was those regulators who told Flint not to treat the water to prevent lead from leaching from old pipes. The task force's Chris Kolb said that just defies common sense.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CHRIS KOLB: It's unimaginable that anyone would come to that conclusion.

SMITH: But the group also put some of the blame on a state law aimed at saving cities like Flint from financial collapse. The report says the emergency manager law allowed nagging water problems to turn into a full-blown crisis. Flint residents demanded the city switch back to the Detroit water system after problems became apparent. Elected city leaders agreed, but were powerless at the time because of the emergency manager law. Emergency managers ignored and even criticized the city leaders. The task force did not investigate legal liability for the crisis. That's being handled by Michigan's attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice. For NPR News, I'm Lindsey Smith. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.