Flint Michigan (1 Viewer)

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Michiganders Demand Governor

To poison all the children in an historic American city is no small feat. Even international terrorist organizations haven’t figured out yet how to do something on a magnitude like this.

But you did. Your staff and others knew that the water in the Flint River was poison — but you decided that taking over the city and “cutting costs” to “balance the budget” was more important than the people’s health (not to mention their democratic rights to elect their own leaders). So you cut off the clean, fresh glacial lake water of Lake Huron that the citizens of Flint (including myself) had been drinking for decades and, instead, made them drink water from the industrial cesspool we call the Flint River — a body of “water” where toxins from a dozen General Motors and DuPont factories have been dumped for over a hundred years. And then you decided to put a chemical in this water to “clean” it — which only ended up stripping the lead off of Flint’s aging water pipes, placing that lead in the water and sending it straight into people’s taps.
 
Ouch!
 
wow

i knew flint was pretty much considered hell on earth, but i didn't know the local government was actively trying to keep it that way.
 
I read about this a few weeks ago. It's so horrible.
 
Those folks are pretty much being held hostage in their own communities. They have been stripped of the democratic process. They no longer have the right to self-governance. What the governor and his administration has done should be considered criminal. The thing is, the governor knew what was happening and started sending water filters to the clergy in that area. However, thanks to the laws in Michigan, his emails and communications can't be gotten using FOI requests. That administration should be put in jail or better yet, they should be forced to drink the water from Flint.
 
anytime I hear people float the fiction of the benevolence of corporations and the inherent moral altruism of the free market, Flint is always the first to come to mind. The city sold its soul, relying on a perpetual and symbiotic relationship, with the corporations that settled there, only to find out that they bailed at the first cheaper suitor - leaving a city's skeleton in its wake.

The history of the relationships and this city ought to be required reading for civil leaders, engineers, and planners everywhere.
 
anytime I hear people float the fiction of the benevolence of corporations and the inherent moral altruism of the free market, Flint is always the first to come to mind. The city sold its soul, relying on a perpetual and symbiotic relationship, with the corporations that settled there, only to find out that they bailed at the first cheaper suitor - leaving a city's skeleton in its wake.

The history of the relationships and this city ought to be required reading for civil leaders, engineers, and planners everywhere.

Yeah, but with all those corporate tax breaks, businesses and workers have to be lined up to get in there.
 
Michigan is the bannana republic of the midwest. The republicans hold both houses and the governors mansion plus the chambers have veto proof majorities. They have been railroading bills through the process that favor business, block civil action (referenda proof legislation) and stripping communities of governing power. The Snyder adminsitration has hindered the people from organizing (unions) gutted social and educational budgets to fund corporate tax breaks and incentives. Ayn Rand would love it here.
 
When Did Michigan Governor Rick Snyder Find Out About Lead Poisoning in Flint's Water Supply? - The Atlantic

But it’s not one emergency manager, or one bad decision about pumping water from the Flint River that has led these problems—and that might be the scariest part of all. Neglected infrastructure is really to blame, but it’s not quite as satisfying to blame old pipes as it is to blame the people in charge. And the city’s financial woes have a lot to do with its shrinking population, but it’s hard to blame the people who left in hopes of finding employment or a better life elsewhere. Eroding infrastructure isn’t unique to Flint. Things just broke down there first.

This quote scares me the most. Simply because we all know that infrastructure is crumbling all over this nation. What else is almost a disaster? Where will it strike? Is this drive to cut spending and taxes reaching a point where peoples lives are in danger?

American Infrastructure Report Card | Society of Civil Engineers
 

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Michigan May Have Suppressed Water Test Results

But research by the ACLU and Michigan Radio suggests that state officials ignored water test results over the summer of 2015 to hide evidence of abnormally high lead levels.

Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech engineering professor who is leading an independent study of the Flint water system, has documented a series of missteps the Department of Environmental Quality made as problems with the water quality began to surface.

For one, the state never required Flint to have a corrosion control program as required by federal law to control levels of lead in drinking water. The state also failed to set “quality parameters” for Flint’s new water source when the city switched to the Flint River in 2014 to save money.

I also read that even though the water is still unsafe to drink, the state is sending out cutoff notices.

Hurray for smaller govt...
 
People Are Dying in Flint and All Signs Point to the Water

Now, a new fear has risen among residents of Flint, Michigan, who have been dealing with lead tainted water since 2014. A recent rise of Legionella or “Legionnaires’ Disease” has produced 87 cases of the disease, 10 of which were fatal in Genesee County.

The rare disease has been linked to poor management of water filtration systems and infrastructure, and the rise in cases came after Genesee County switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River for the city’s water supply. The money-saving move initially led to a spike of lead poisoning in children.

Someone should face criminal charges it would seem.
 
anytime I hear people float the fiction of the benevolence of corporations and the inherent moral altruism of the free market, Flint is always the first to come to mind.


Corporations are people, but some people are selfish *******s.
 

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