From now on Michigan residents will know within three days of the lead level in their public water supply exceeds safe levels.

It’s part of new legislation signed today by Gov. Rick Snyder at Grace Emmanuel Church in Flint.

“These bills help ensure that all Michigan families are promptly notified in situations where lead levels in public water supplies exceed safe levels for drinking and cooking,” Snyder says. “This is an important step in our ongoing efforts to strengthen Michigan’s water quality and infrastructure.”

The bill (House Bill 5120) was sponsored by state Rep. Sheldon Neeley.

A public water supply must still provide public educational resources as currently required. This improvement for public health was also part of Snyder’s proposed reforms to the Lead and Copper Rule presented in Flint last April. It is now Public Act 478 of 2016.

Gov. Snyder also signed 21 additional bills that:

• Require physicians or health facilities to report all maternal deaths to help Michigan reduce the number of these deaths.
• Expand the elements of fourth-degree vulnerable adult abuse to include an intentional act by a caregiver posing unreasonable risk of harm or injury regardless of whether physical harm resulted.
• Prohibit parents or guardians from the practice of informal custody transfers that are for 180 days or more.
• Create a new crime category of providing travel services for purposes of prostitution or human trafficking.
• Impose a second degree child abuse penalty for licensed child care providers or organizations if they intentionally violate a licensing rule that results in the death of a child. \
• Abolish a surviving wife’s dower right. Michigan was the only state that still granted a right to dower exclusively to surviving wives, but not to surviving husbands. Most states have already eliminated the dower rights because the existence of a right available only to one sex has been held to be unconstitutional under equal protection principle
• Amend current law to allow confidential information about child abuse and neglect to be disclosed to a child advocacy center that is providing services to a victim of child abuse or neglect, or to the child’s family.
• Allow information or records held by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs and the Department of Health and Human Services to be disclosed to each other regarding investigations of adult foster care and child care facilities, without having to submit a FOIA request.
• Make necessary amendments to the Juvenile Code to maintain compliance with federal law for the purposes of being eligible to receive federal funding.
• Revise current penalties for those who advertise or recruit parents or guardians for adoption.
• Provide clarity and process for a probate court to take jurisdiction over matters for individuals with connections to Michigan.

For more information on this and other legislation, visit www.legislature.mi.gov.

  Flint water, Governor Rick Snyder, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Michigan Dept. of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Public Act 478