The Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $100 million grant to Michigan on Friday to fund drinking water upgrades in Flint, which suffered widespread lead contamination and became a national story last year.
“The people of Flint and all Americans deserve a more responsive federal government,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “EPA will especially focus on helping Michigan improve Flint’s water infrastructure as part of our larger goal of improving America’s water infrastructure.” The announcement came one day after the White House released its budget blueprint, outlining its plans to cut the EPA’s budget by at least 31 percent and lay off 3,200 staff in an effort to shrink the federal government.
Pruitt pointed out that the Flint funds were provided by a water infrastructure bill that Congress passed late last year. The funding “enables Flint to accelerate and expand its work to replace lead service lines and make other critical infrastructure improvements,” the EPA said.
The announcement came a day after Pruitt sent more than $90,000 to Utah and Colorado to help the states, tribal and local governments recover the costs of dealing with a major toxic spill in August 2015 that the EPA caused.
The Obama administration said in January that it would not reimburse states for the cleanup costs associated with the 3 million gallons of toxic sludge released from the Gold King Mine in Colorado.
Pruitt said the water bill passed in December makes funds available for EPA to reimburse states affected by the Gold King spill. He said more money is in the queue to be sent and those announcements will be made at a later date.
