Flint Water

Yes. However, when local governments fail to protect their citizens, the federal government must step in.

flint government approved the change in water supply.

cicerone imposter-

Thank you.

Is the Flint City Council largely comprised of Democrats? Liberals? African Americans?

Hillary & Bernie are calling for the resignation of the (Republican) governor? Why don't they also call for the resignation of the city council and the mayor?

No, the city was under a state appointed manager to get its finances back in order. The manager was the one who decided to change the water supply despite warnings of the problems.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/04/us/flint-water-crisis-fast-facts/

Are you hoping for your favorite 'hated group' to be responsible??? Sober up, the decision to switch water supply and not treat the water was made by craven assholes who didn't give a damn about the health of the citizens of Flint. I'm predicting we will be stunned as the number of citizens drinking poisoned water grows when municipalities begin testing the water. Gollum, see if you can get your local officials and see if they can assure you your water is safe.

Unlike Flint, our city water quality meets all government safety levels.
http://sunnyvale.ca.gov/Portals/0/Sunnyvale/ESD/Water/WQARwebversion2014.pdf

engineer-

Thank you.

I find that wikipedia's article demonstrates that city officials are also responsible:

Starting in 2010, Genesee County had spearheaded the development of the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) to supply it and Lapeer and Sanilac counties—plus the cities of Lapeer and Flint—with water.[19] On March 25, 2013, Flint City Council voted 7-1 to approve the purchase of 16 million gallons per day from the KWA rather than go with Flint River water as a permanent supply.[20] Flint emergency manager (EM) Ed Kurtz and Mayor Dayne Walling approved the action on March 29 and forwarded the action for the State Treasurer to approve.[21]

The DWSD, on April 1, sent out a press release demanding the state should block Flint's request as it would hurt Detroit Water and start a water war. The release also put out several options for Flint, including sale of raw untreated water. Genesee County Drain commissioner Wright, after accusing the DWSD of negotiating through the media, replied, "It would be unprecedented for the state to force one community to enter into an agreement with another, simply to artificially help one community at the other's expense. This is exactly what the (Detroit Water and Sewerage Department) is arguing should be done."[22]

Still, on April 15, State Treasurer Andy Dillon gave approval to Kurtz to enter into a water purchase contract with the KWA.[23] EM Kurtz signed the KWA water purchase agreement on April 16.[24] On April 17, the Detroit Water and Sewer Department gave its one-year termination notice to the city just days after the County and City rejected the DWSD's last offer. The DWSD also expected that Flint pay them for past investments in the water system that benefited regional customers; Flint and Genesee County rejected such responsibility, although they indicated willingness to purchase some pipeline. Governor Rick Snyder called a meeting of the three parties for April 19 to discuss those and other issue related to the KWA project.[23]

In late April 2014, in an effort to save about $5 million over less than two years,[24][25][26] the city switched from purchasing treated Lake Huron water from Detroit, as it had done for 50 years, to treating water from the Flint River. The plan was to attach to the Karegnondi system, which was under construction, pending completion nearly three years later (currently scheduled for completion in June 2016).[27] The Flint River had been the designated backup water source for years.[28][29] Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley finalized the sale in June 2014 of an Eastern Genesee County 9-mile section of water pipeline to Genesee County for $3.9 million. This pipeline feeds Detroit water to the county and after the Huron pipeline is active would service the Eastern part of the county.[30] By December 2014, the city had invested $4 million into its water plant.[31] On July 1, 2014, Mayor Dayne Walling was given operating authority over two city departments including Public Works by Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley.[32]

The concerns and complaints from the people of Flint went unheeded for months. The corrosive, polluted water of Flint River went thru old lead pipes and was further polluted. Because city officials were also dealing with Flint's crime level, schools, and general economy, the water quality issue was put on the back burner.

No other community would have put up with this kind of drinking water; no other officials would have failed to act, but Flint is a low income, economically depressed city run by inept bean counters who looked at the bottom line only.

This is Michigan's Katrina: low income population, government neglect and inaction, a catastrophe happens - then its entire dilemma is brought out into the spotlight.

It's a complicated issue. And the poor decisions on water treatment don't seem to have much explanation for them (including a clear idea of who made the decisions).

The current focus on state officials is because Democrats like to blame disasters on their political opponents for no reason. It's why Democrats like it so much when a disaster happens.

Democrats and Liberals. I've no idea regarding race.

As Liberals are wont to do, they ran the place into bankruptcy and the place was therefore under the economic management of the state government.

The water issue is pretty complicated. Detroit was charging very high prices to let Flint use their water. Flint has long wanted to get their own water supply so they could get out from under Detroit's thumb, and they finally acted and started building their own pipeline to Lake Huron. Detroit reacted to this by immediately canceling their contract to supply water to Flint. Flint then turned to the Flint River as an emergency water supply until they could get their new pipeline built.

For some unexplained reason, they did not treat the river water to counter its corrosiveness, so the protective layer in the pipes was dissolved and people got exposed to lead. The real failure in this disaster was this lack of water treatment.

There has been a lot of chafe thrown up by the governor about this. Here is the link to the fact finding. Note that the Wikipedia article is basically the governor's statement.

One sample:

oralloy-

Thank you.

As to your statement that Detroit canceled its contract to supply water to Flint, can it do that? Does it have to give a certain duration of notice?

After Detroit canceled the contract to supply water, I suppose the emergency manager should have told the residents to start drinking sand instead of water?

The decision to switch to the Flint River as a temporary emergency measure was reasonable. The problem was the decision to not treat the water to make it suitable for human consumption.

Apparently they could.

The Left keeps suggesting that Flint should have negotiated a new contract with Detroit. But with the way Detroit was playing hardball, that seems unlikely to have led to a realistic solution.

engineer-

Thank you.

What are the name(s) of the individuals in the Flint City government who should have put the proper chemicals in the Flint pipes to deal with the corrosion but failed to do so?

What are the name(s) of the individuals in the State government who should have noticed the deficiency but failed to do so?

Good question. Apparently these are secret people who have no name.



They were fired I think, so their names are known, but I don't remember the names off hand.

I think some federal people were fired too.