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.