Governor Snyder’s water proposal falls short
LANSING – Lisa Wozniak, executive director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters today downplayed Governor Rick Snyder’s proposal to address water infrastructure issues, calling it an incremental step that only addresses about 10 percent of the overall funding needed to tackle Michigan’s massive infrastructure challenges.
Our drinking water faces a monumental challenge in 2018. We need a bold, comprehensive vision for how to protect our families and our water. Governor Snyder’s proposal falls short of that,” Wozniak said. “While a minor step in the right direction, the Governor’s water infrastructure proposal is literally a drop in the bucket given the enormous challenges facing Michigan’s water, Great Lakes and inland lakes, rivers and streams. We call on the Legislature to use this as a starting point to craft a broad, all-hands-on-deck strategy for dealing with Michigan’s monumental water crisis.”
The Governor’s own 21st Century Infrastructure Commission studied Michigan’s drinking water systems for almost a year and determined in December that the state needed to spend about $1 billion a year more to address issues that could affect public health.
In 2016, Food & Water Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, released a study showing households in Phoenix, Arizona paid an average of just $84.24 annually while those in Flint paid $864.32 – more than 10 times much. Michigan’s average of $323.47 was more than the national average.