President Obama made $80 million available to the state of Michigan on Thursday in light of the water contamination issue in Flint. How Michigan uses that money is the prerogative of the Michigan governor Rick Snyder. This money can be spent particularly for water treatment, systems and infrastructure. Michigan's legislature is also making money available for emergency expenses, according to The Detroit Free Press.
Addressing a team of mayors at the White House, the President said that the Flint lead contamination issue was inexcusable. "Our children should not have to be worried about the water that they are drinking in American cities. That's not something that we should accept," the President said according to The Detroit News.
Karen Weaver, Flint's mayor, said: "It was encouraging to hear President Obama say that $80 million will be coming to Michigan to help local governments, like the City of Flint improve their water systems. The residents of Flint could benefit greatly from that type of money. We are waiting to see how much of the $80 million will be allocated to the City of Flint and how much of it would go elsewhere, bit it's a step in the right direction," according to The Detroit News.
However, this allocation is not related to the request Rick Snyder had made to the president for $96 million of major disaster assistance earlier this week. Since the President's office considered the Flint situation something that was man-made (rather than natural) - $5 million was allocated. Snyder then requested the President to re-consider this decision of his office. The outcome of this particular request is not yet known.
In the meantime, the legislature of Michigan is speeding-up a process to make additional funds of up to $28 million available for Flint toward clean drinking water, bottled water, water filters and other water related needs, according to The International Business Times.
