I live overseas. Someone help me with Flint

[Recursion]

I mean this seriously: the news doesn't always get out to us very well.

Can someone tell me if my understanding is correct here?

1. Flint's water was basically as safe as all of ours back in the past (and, call me crazy, they live literally adjacent to the largest concentration of clean freshwater in the world).

2. Something changed, within the last ten years

3. Specifically, the water's source changed, from the lake to the river

4. EDIT: the water was more corrosive than the previous water.

4a. The corrosiveness could have been undone for about $100 per day.

5. The corrosiveness of the water leeched lead out of the pipes

6. The lead wound up in kids' bloodstreams.

I'm seriously an American abroad who can't always follow US news. Can someone correct me if I got something wrong on that? (I'm not looking for a huge fight I'm actually trying to figure out what happened here...)

[annabanana]

1. You have the bones of the story right.

The rage inducing part of it is that an "Emergency Manager", appointed by and answerable only to the Governor ordered the switch as a money saving action. The local government had been completely stripped of any power to prevent the change.

Not sure you have #4 right.. that water is some pretty grotty stuff.

[Recursion]

3. Ah, thank you

I'll look into that.

[tazkcmo]

2. You got it in a nut shell.

It's numbers 2 and 3 that you need to Google to get more back ground on such as why and how. Emergency manager appointed by governor, cover up and money.

[Recursion]

4. Will do, thanks (nt)

[Maeve]

5. Also, the 'money saving' aspect wasn't true

Because they were offered the lake water at a lower price, lower than the transition was. However, there seems to have been a desire to break up the water board in Detroit and that was a contributing factor.

As mentioned, Flint had their democracy taken away and an Emergency Manager appointed who made all the decisions that led to the water crisis.The Manager was appointed by, and responsible to, Govenor Rick Snyder.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

6. 7. Republicans beliece life is cheap: unless it's a fetus to use for political gain.

[itcfish]

7. Perhaps this article will help

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/23/the_truth_about_flint_kids_drank_poisoned_water_because_of_the_gops_radical_anti_democratic_reforms/

[1939]

8. 1. Needs to be modified

Detroit Water and Sewer District had warned Flint about the quality of their water mains back in 2004.

[Act_of_Reparation]

9. As someone knee deep in the thick of it, allow me to clarify:

1) For 50 some-odd years, Flint's public water was pumped in from Detroit. That water was safe to drink, but expensive.

2) Under the pretense of "saving money", Flint moved to join a privatized water cooperative. The cooperative planned to construct a pipeline from Lake Huron to Flint.

3) Detroit terminated their existing water contract with Flint years before the pipeline was scheduled to be completed. Rather than renegotiate, Flint decided to pull its drinking water from the Flint River in the interim.

4) The Flint River has a much higher concentration of chlorides in its water than does Lake Huron, making it more caustic. Also, in 2014, the city treated a bacterial outbreak in the river with chlorine-based bleach. This produced a spike in trihalomethane, a chlorine by-product and known carcinogen.

4a)It looks like the state environmental and public health agencies did not follow protocol treating the water for its causticness. I don't know how much it would have cost, but it would have been cheaper than poisoning half the city.

5) Yes, see above.

6) Yes. This is covered in-depth in an American Journal of Public Health article written by Hurley Medical Center Pediatrician and Michigan State University professor Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha: Elevated Blood Lead Levels in Children Associated With the Flint Drinking Water Crisis: A Spatial Analysis of Risk and Public Health Response.

[Kber]

13. Also

Their old water supplier offered to reduce rates, which would have saved at least as much money as privatizing was supposed to.

[Crabby Appleton]

10. Here is a timeline of Flint water problems

that does a good job of explaining how things developed:

http://bridgemi.com/2016/02/flint-water-disaster-timeline/

[Kber]

11. Small point

Water corrosiveness could have been addressed for $100 / day treatment lasting 3-5 months.

[Recursion]

12. Thank you (nt)