I work in the civil engineering field, which includes municipal utilities.
When a project is handed off, you have to assume that everything done prior to your involvement was correct, checked, vetted, reviewed, approved unless you are told to check on a problem, or it is glaring. These people who did the design and construction plans are professionals, and there are liabilities. You don’t make mistakes if you want to keep your job/company.
It is my understanding that studies were done, and there were concerns that the Flint River water was corrosive enough to cause the lead to leach out of the existing pipes, which it has.
It sounds to me like the MDEQ and the EPA pushed this thing through. We never get approval for new construction, let alone this magnitude of modification in such a time frame.
That said, the state officials were/are in a lose/lose position. If they had made Flint jump through all the hoops everyone else has to, they would have been called racist for dragging their feet after the Flint City Council had already approved the switch.
So it went through without the proper reviews (I think), and now the state officials are racists.
Of course they’re racists. They’re white, aren’t they.
;-)
Thanks.