Posted on 01/19/2019 2:29:54 AM PST by Libloather
DETROIT (AP) - Fifteen people have been charged in an investigation of how Flint's water became contaminated with lead in 2014-15 and a related outbreak of Legionnaires' disease. Seven people have pleaded no contest to misdemeanors in deals that will leave them without a criminal record.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc-7.com ...
Looks like they're all gubmint employees.
You mean that some DEMOCRATS will get put in Prison?? WOW!
The most responsible are the political leaders, the last republican was elected in the early 1960’s. I grew up in flint. Like Detroit, it was full of opportunity in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
...that’s a feather in their cap, along with lying to congress...
The reason why flints water got contaminated was because the city was trying to do things on the cheap. They first stopped getting their water from the city of detroits supply, instead going to the flint river for its intake. Secondly, again to save money, the city council decided not to put minerals in the water supply to keep the lead from leeching out of the older pipes. They did this knowing the likely result was lead contamination. Now the cover-up and obfuscation from state
Officials was real. But the proximate cause for the contamination was the city going on the cheap and failing to take adequate precautions to safeguard their water supply. And at the end of all of this, the upshot is that flint is once again getting their supply of water from detroit, and putting minerals in the water to prevent lead leeching.
I know 3 of those people. Worked pretty closely with two of them.
Two of those were among those who plea-bargained to mis-demeanors. The third, it appears, is still charged with a felony. In my experience with this guy, he was a real stickler for making public water supplies stick to the rules and industry recommendations. I’m not going to jump to conclusions just because he still faces trial. I’d like to know more detail.
it’s clear to me that Schuette, the state AG, was looking for feathers in his cap, probably because he was running for governor (which he lost). I won’t be at all surprised if some get not-guilty verdicts if they go to trial.
As someone else said the state government is largely culpable. That, I believe. Flint was in bad shape financially and an emergency manager was assigned by governor Rick Scott to straighten things out. My guess is there was pressure being applied to the MDEQ to get the change made so money could be saved. No doubt there were major screw-ups. I just hope the right people are held accountable.
The system works like this, if you see something keep your mouth shut. The 8 probably knew what was going on but the upper end warned them. Management and the political arm needs to be accountable not the bottom end employee. The employee who deals with these issues day in and day out are not given the resources to fix it and are told this is a sensitive issue leave it alone. Hope they have submitted paperwork to back it up
Rick Scott???
All white people?
Meanwhile, I wonder how much of the bad plumbing has been replaced....
I get the impression this whole issue is garnering national attention to make the case the federal government should replace the plumbing for all of Flint (on the taxpayers’ backs instead of the residents’). They’re blowing it up to “Love Canal” proportions so they can handle it the same way. Now there is news that many homes in northeastern NJ have the same issue; doubt it will get much national coverage because most of those impacted are white middle-class Americans.
Who can pay to replace it? Newark NJ has the same issue, and if I recall correctly, the solution was supposed to be water filters instead of the real fix - there is simply no money to do it right.
“I get the impression this whole issue is garnering national attention to make the case the federal government should replace the plumbing for all of Flint (on the taxpayers’ backs instead of the residents’). They’re blowing it up to “Love Canal” proportions so they can handle it the same way. Now there is news that many homes in northeastern NJ have the same issue; doubt it will get much national coverage because most of those impacted are white middle-class Americans.”
I think you did a great job describing the “big picture” there. Fact is there there is no lead in most water mains. I believe the lead is coming from service connections lines running from the mains to individual residences (between the street and the house).
Although Public Water Supply Systems (PWWS) are supposed to monitor the drinking water they provide, including testing for lead, they do little of the testing at individual residences. There are just too many and the water supply has no requirement to check every residence. They don’t have the staffing, and the Safe Drinking Water Act doesn’t require it.
I’m sure there are other communities in the same boat, i.e. with many of the homes (especially older ones) with lead service lines.
I’ve been watching the Flint case pretty carefully because I was in the water supply business for a while. We had to do all the water testing and when a problem was found we had to correct it, and quickly. Fortunately my customers were in a community with extraordinary infrastructure for their utilities. I’m only about an hour’s drive from Flint, sometimes called the armpit of Michigan.
I think the root of the problem, in this case, is that when Flint switched their supply they failed to properly treat the water with corrosion inhibitor. Now who would be at fault for that? I have a lot of questions...
A lot of it. At the states expense.
CC
“it’s going to take a long time to get the lead out.”
The most cost effective way to get the lead out, or at least out of your diet, is to flush your water for a few minutes every morning before drinking it. Lead takes a little bit of time to leach into the water, so keeping it fresh leave you with no worries.
Alternatively, going in and replacing every lead service line would cost a lot. I think the push will be to get the federal government to pay for it That’s not realistic. Although, it wouldn’t surprise me if it somehow works its way into an infrastructure bill supported by Trump and the democrats. I hope not, because that is not necessary if you just take a minute or two to keep your water fresh.
...and an emergency manager was assigned by governor Rick Scott to straighten things...
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NOT governor Rick Scott - BUT Rick SNYDER.
“Rick Scott”
Right. I was sloppy. How can I forget Rick Snyder? He ran Gateway when they tried to send me less than what I ordered, and whose technical support wouldn’t connect me to their supervisors.
I had two mail orders with Gateway and they tried to short-change me both times. Fortunately the computer told me what hardware it had installed and it was less than what I purchased, both times. Gateway straightened it out, but I still get ticked when I think about it.
Besides, Snyder was a lousy governor.
Lead sampling is not done by the public water supplier at every address but a representative number of samples at the point of entry based upon population are taken. 90% of the samples must be below 15 parts per billion lead - not good if you happen to be in the top 10%. Flint was less than 4 parts per billion 90% of the time for the second half of 2018.
I used to work for a public water supply that used phosphoric acid as a corrosion inhibitor. This was closely monitored both by the utility and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to whom we submitted monthly reports.
Still don’t understand why Flint didn’t use a corrosion inhibitor when they switched raw water supplies or what the reaction of the MDEQ regulators might have been.
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