Flint, Michigan - How Can This Be Allowed To Continue?

I was reading articles on The Player's Tribune expecting to read some basketball related stories when I came across this article by retired NBA player Rasheed Wallace. I'm thinking WTF? I recall the story in the news last year and the fundraising efforts on behalf of the people of Flint, some here on DFS. The media, however, has ADD. They lose interest in a story long before the problems they report about are solved. The media moves on to the next story that will help them sell whatever it is the media sells (misery?) and the minds of the people move along with them figuring that a few months of fundraising surely must have solved that problem. Right Captain Planet. Wrong. In any case, I pasted the link to the article if you're interested in what the current status is in Flint.

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/rasheed...-michigan/

This is one of those situations though where they can't just snap their fingers and "voila", it's fixed. All of the old supply pipes need to be replaced. That in itself is a MASSIVE undertaking. What happened was that the Flint river water that they switched over to was corrosive enough to wear away the protective coating on the inside of the old lead pipes, thus contaminating it with lead. Apparently they add something to the water that coats the inside of the pipes to keep the lead out. Now all the pipes are fubared. I don't know what the status of the government's plan or actions so far, because like Sheed said, it has disappeared from news coverage even here locally. The whole situation is deplorable to say the least. I know a lot if not most of these people are poor, but I'd be doing anything I could to get the hell out of there if it were me. Flint is a crappy place to live even without poison water.

I hear you - at least two problems, fixing the water distribution system which is, as you say a massive undertaking but then there is taking care of the people that are there and either can't or won't relocate and that problem just takes the will to do it,

Mark

I think the process that led to switching from Detroit's treated (safe) water to water from the Flint river needs to be examined at some point. I mean seriously, who decides to draw drinking water for a significant population from a new source without doing some basic testing for potability and safety?? You have to have the engineers consider it at some point, water of a specific quality and pH going through known distribution system - whats the impact on the pipes, what needs to be done to it at the treatment facility. I worked for years in oil and gas and any engineer knows that the acidity of a given gas or crude oil stream is important in determining the design spec of a gathering and processing (refining) system. Acid gas or oil (sour) will corrode right through conventional piping and cause catastrophic failures. Its the same with water, acidic water is corrosive, any engineer knows that. How this was a "surprise" just floors me. I'd follow the money and see who stood to gain from switching sources of water.

The problem remains in how to get sufficient quantities of safe water to the residents. Clean water has always been a hallmark of first world developed nations relative to the third world. If our governments can't guarantee that, then what good are they?

There will be a long trial on that. We are paying the governor's legal bills, too. I don't think taxpayers should pay to defend his incompetence.

What's more is that the EPA knew about this long before the cat was let out of the bag. This was the most recent news story regarding this whole catastrophe (some time last week). No news about any progress being made to fix it.