In Wake Of Flint, Gov. Snyder Unveils Safe Drinking Water Plan
By Peak Johnson
In an effort to calm resident’s concerns over the water contamination crisis in Flint, MI, Governor Rick Snyder unveiled a 30-year strategy for safe drinking water.
The first segment of this plan focuses on five areas that echo water issues Michigan currently faces or has faced in recent years.
“There’s a framework here for long-term success,” Snyder said, according to The Detroit News. “If there’s one thing that binds Michiganders together, as much or more than anything, it’s a love of the Great Lakes and the wonderful water resources we have in this state.”
The strategy includes steps that have already been taken, such as holding “the line on discharges” at the Detroit Water and Sewage Department plant as well as the Wayne County Downriver treatment plant.
One of the problems, phosphorus, has been a difficulty in northeast and southwest Michigan according to The Detroit News. Algae growth has been linked to the amount of phosphorous that runs off the land in the region and into Lake Erie.
Michigan introduced several measures late in 2015 designed to reduce the phosphorus reaching Lake Erie. According to the Detroit Free Press Snyder did not put a “dollar figure on how much the decades-long plan would cost.”
"I wouldn't want to throw out a number. It's a large number,” he said. “The important part is to reinvest. The first part is community engagement."
While some of the efforts for the strategy might be costly, officials have said, others may be voluntary such as boaters washing and drying their vessels after leaving a body of water to help eliminate bringing in an invasive species.
Jon Allan, director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Office of the Great Lakes, said the strategy has been in development for several years and is the “vision of not only officials but also residents.”
"This is something we do together," Allan said.
Michigan has been seen as “underinvesting” in its underground drinking water infrastructure by $284 million to $563 million a year, according to Mike Nystrom, executive vice president of the Michigan Infrastructure & Transportation Association.
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