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Kaptur Visits Flint, MI, Calls for Immediate & Long-Term
Federal Protections for Lead-Affected Families
Special to The Truth
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-9) traveled to Flint,
Michigan last week with Toledo Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson and
several other members of Congress to participate in a series
of neighborhood meetings with families affected by the
city’s ongoing water crisis. The meetings were organized and
hosted by Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-5).
Kaptur is a co-chairman of the Congressional Great Lakes
Task Force and the ranking member of the House
Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.
She has been a national leader on water safety and
environmental stewardship, a role that garnered national
attention in 2014 when her hometown of Toledo, Ohio faced a
drinking water ban as a result of toxins in the water caused
by Harmful Algal Blooms in the western Lake Erie basin.
Kaptur has spearheaded numerous legislative efforts to
secure water safety for thousands of Great Lakes
communities.
Her full statement appears below:
Congressman Kildee, the Mayor of Toledo, Paula Hicks-Hudson
all my Colleagues, thank you for being here today and for
this church community; wherever I go in the world, wherever
there is a need, there always seems to be a church there
that keeps its doors open.
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We are here today from Ohio, just over the Michigan border,
because about a year and a quarter ago, we suffered our own
water crisis, very significant, where the water was shut off
for three days. We have actually lived through a different
type of crisis, and when we read about Flint we wanted to
stand with you and walk with you.
What has been, frankly, shocking to me, in listening to the
citizens who were kind enough to meet with us today, is the
lack of dispatch, and an emergency coordinator, and an
emergency team that is fully at work 24 hours a day dealing
with the people here, dealing with the health needs, dealing
with the human needs, dealing with the infrastructure
planning that will be essential to help Flint meet a new
future. And what I heard today, first from the children, no
child in Flint should go without medical care, particularly
those physicians who are trained in detecting this type of
toxin in their bloodstream. There should be trailers here;
there should be doctors here; there should have been
regularized health care from day one. I have just been
shocked at this kind of neglect and frankly I put it at the
doorstep at the State of Michigan because in our State, when
the water crisis hit (in Toledo), we worked together to
assemble that kind of emergency response.
I will just say that we will stand strong with you. I am the
co-chair of the Great Lakes Task Force in the House of
Representatives and we will work with your Congressional
Delegation to give them an opportunity to testify and to
bring forward what is happening here in Flint; and know that
you have friends over in the Buckeye State who want to come
and join our Wolverine friends and try to move this region
forward more quickly. Thank you Congressman Kildee for
bringing us together. The People of Flint – the Citizens of
our County – deserve better than what they have been
delivered.
Local Residents Provide Assistance to Northern Neighbors
Dozens of Toledoans have
not only dipped into their pockets to help provide clean
water for the besieged Flint residents but have also taken
the time to deliver the water themselves. Last week, for
example, Charles Turnbough and a co-worker in the City of
Toledo Department of Neighborhoods raised funds to purchase
52 cases of water. Turnbough’s father, Joe Turnbough, Sr.,
and son, Charles, Jr., made the trip with him to Flint. |
