LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Senate acted quickly Tuesday to finalize legislation authorizing $30 million in supplemental aid to help pay Flint residents’ water bills, as lawmakers and public officials scramble to try to fix the lead-contaminated water supply.
Senators voted unanimously to send the measure to Gov. Rick Snyder a day after a University of Michigan Flint professor said the city has more than 8,000 old lead pipes running from water mains to homes and businesses. Flint’s mayor plans to use that estimate to replace the lead service lines leading from city water mains in the street to homes, even as Snyder’s administration plans to use estimates from a Flint-based engineering firm.
Snyder called the Legislature’s approval of the $30 million aid a “testament to the state’s continued commitment to helping during this crisis.”
The plan will pay for 65 percent of the water portion of Flint residents’ bills. That includes water used for drinking, cooking or bathing, according to Snyder’s office. Residents will still have to foot the sewage portion of their water bills after the Republican-controlled Legislature shot down Democrats’ efforts to double the aid to cover people’s entire water bills.
