Brown Water at Public Health Offices Kismet for Flint?

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LANSING, MI – In what skeptics of Michigan public health officials’ handling of the Flint water crisis may interpret as a sign from the universe, filthy looking brown water bubbled from drinking fountains in the agency’s Lansing headquarters this week.

After a construction accident on the first floor of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services building Monday, drinking fountains were posted as off limits for two days because of the discolored water, the Detroit Free Press reported. A don’t-drink-the-water email was also circulated throughout the multi-story building.

The accident caused some materials in pipes to dislodge, requiring that pipes be flushed until water ran clear, MDHHS spokesperson Jennifer Eisner told the Free Press.

On Wednesday, the fountains were running clear again, but flowing with irony.

Officials at the MDHHS are among those under fire for their response to both a spike in Legionnaires’ disease and the possible consequences for Flint children who drank the lead-tainted water after the city began drawing water from the Flint River in 2014.

Related

• ‘Little Miss Flint’ Charms a Visit from President Obama
• Flint Water Crisis Criminal Charges ‘First Wave’
• Flint Water Crisis Whistleblowers ‘TIME 100’ Honorees
• Nation's Toughest Lead Water Rules Proposed in Michigan
• Legionnaires Death Toll Now 12 in Flint Area: Report
• Watch: Congress Eviscerates Rick Snyder Over Flint Water Crisis

Eisner said the inconvenience to state health department workers in no way compares to what Flint resident have gone through.

President Barack Obama, who declared a state of emergency in Flint in January, was visiting the city Wednesday. The president’s visit to Flint was in response to a letter from an 8-year-old who said she wanted to visit the White House to “speak for the children of Flint” when she was in Washington, DC, for congressional hearings on the government’s handling of the crisis.

The president planned to meet with Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and others. Obama drank a glass of filtered Flint water after a briefing by federal officials, The Detroit News reported.