Ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan

[Otter Mii-kun]

Since 2014, the tap water supply for the city of Flint, Michigan has been the subject of an escalating crisis, where elevated levels of lead have contaminated the drinking water within the city. The seeds for this crisis were sown when a state-appointed emergency financial manager decided to remove Flint from the Detroit water system due to the high costs charged by the Detroit water authority. The emergency manager opted to join a new water authority, which is building a pipeline from Lake Huron to Flint, but, because the new pipeline hadn't yet been built (and is not expected to be completed until later this year), the city's water source had been switched to the Flint River as an interim solution. Unfortunately, as a further cost-cutting measure, a decision was made not to treat the water being drawn from the river for corrosion control to meet the requirements for water being fed through lead pipes, hence setting off what has now become a major crisis.

Since the April 2014 switch to the Flint River, numerous problems began cropping up with the tap water coming from this 'new' source, including:

• Immediately after the water source switch, Flint residents complained about the water not tasting right, being badly discolored, and having a strange odor.
• General Motors complained that the Flint water was corroding their parts being produced in their plants in the city.
• Blood testing of children living in Flint revealed that blood lead levels doubled, sometimes even tripled, since the source switch.
• Water service pipes in numerous spots throughout the city of Flint became badly corroded, due to the lack of proper anti-corrosion treatment of the Flint River water.
• Nearly 100 cases of Legionnaire's Disease were reported in Genesee County, including 10 deaths. Although government officials deny any links between this and the Flint water, the first cases were not diagnosed until after the switch to the Flint River.

Various actions have been taking place to deal with this crisis; among them are:

• Bottled water, as well as water filters have been delivered to Flint residents in an attempt to reduce the lead levels in the water supply.
• Dayne Walling, the Mayor of Flint at the time of the water source switch, was defeated in a re-election bid in November 2015, with Karen Weaver becoming the new mayor.
• The state government had the City of Flint switch back to the Detroit water system on an interim basis until the new KWA pipeline is completed.
• In January 2016, Governor Snyder declared a state of emergency for Genesee County, and apologized for the crisis. Days later, he sent the National Guard to Flint to help distribute bottled water to Flint residents. Not long after the state-declared emergency, President Obama declared a state of emergency at the federal level, with authorization of emergency financial aid to Flint to help deal with the crisis.
• Bills have been introduced in both the Michigan Legislature and the United States Congress to fund recovery efforts in Flint, including funds to replace the aged and corroded lead pipes in the city.
• Governor Snyder also gave mayor Karen Weaver extra powers to help the city resolve the crisis.
• Mayor Weaver called for swift and immediate action to begin replacing the city's lead pipes, which the aforementioned legislation would help fund.
• Several state and local officials resigned for their roles in the water crisis, including the head of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
• Lawsuits have been filed against Governor Snyder, the MDEQ, former Flint mayor Walling, and some of the city's former emergency managers for their roles in the crisis and its cover-up.
• Officials with both the City of Flint and the State of Michigan have been called to testify before Congress on the crisis.

Other things have happened in response to the Flint water disaster, including:

• As the crisis began to explode, calls for Governor Rick Snyder to resign greatly increased, and some celebrities, including Michael Moore, even called for Governor Snyder to be arrested.
• Websites and blogs have been set up covering the Flint water crisis.
• News outlets across not just Michigan, but elsewhere in the United States and the rest of the world, began covering the crisis, especially in the past few months.
• WDIV-TV channel 4, the NBC affiliate for Detroit, aired a news special entitled "Failure in Flint" during prime time on February 16, 2016. (WDIV is receivable over-the-air in Flint and across much of Genesee County with an outdoor rooftop antenna.)
• Darnell Earley, the emergency manager who oversaw the switch to the Flint River in 2014, was reassigned as emergency manager for Detroit Public Schools. His tenure with DPS has also been a disaster, with the district's school buildings falling into severe disrepair, including mold and rodent infestations, and teachers staging "sick-out" strikes in response. Earley has since tendered his resignation as DPS EM and is set to leave the position on February 29.

[haze]

It's a crappy situation all around. Obviously there were some cover ups but Michigan has had budget issues for YEARS. They tried to cut costs and it backfired badly, but it's not like they knew this would be the outcome. Coming from a person with some background in water/wastewater treatment, this situation is just going to keep getting worse until all the advocacy groups stop screaming and come up with a solution to avoid this in other areas. A lot of areas have piping that was installed mid 1900s, there's a good chance this can happen in the future. This is also what happens when you let politicians and elected officials play engineer.