Former Detroit mayor said Michigan governors knew of Flint’s water problems

(Special from NorthStarNews-Today.com) — Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, claims Michigan governors Jennifer Granholm and Rick Snyder knew about Flint’s water problems long before they received national and international attention because of the water’s high lead content.

“Gov. Snyder is misleading people by saying he recently found about the issue,” Kilpatrick wrote in a Facebook post from a federal prison where he is serving 28 years.

“More than likely, he is being viciously, aggressively and deliberately untruthful.” Kilpatrick is appealing his sentence.
Granholm was Michigan’s governor from 2003 to 2011.

He added that Gov. Granholm, Snyder’s predecessor, also was well aware of the issues with the Flint Water Department and their inability to produce contaminant-free water moving forward. He noted the state couldn’t afford the equipment and the technology to do so. Snyder has been governor since 2011.

He noted that the problems with Flint’s water supply date back to 2004 despite Flint being with the Detroit Water and Sewage Department until 2014. Flint, a city of 99,000, is 60 miles northwest of Detroit.

This article originally published in the February 1, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.