APPENDIX 1
WATER CRISIS, FLINT, MICHIGAN,
2014-2019
The first topic was
why Flint officials wanted to change the city’s source of water; as Anna Clark
explained:
“It
had been relying on water from Lake Huron from the Detroit Water Department for
about 50 years. The quality was good, but there was a lot of unhappiness about
the affordability. It was extremely expensive — the most expensive or among the
most expensive water rates in the country. And especially for a city with a
very high poverty rate, this was really getting to the point of crisis. And a
lot of folks really felt like, ‘We want our own water system. We want some more
control.’ So, it decided, it was under state-appointed emergency management,
that it was going to switch to a new water department. And until that new water
department was built, it was going to temporarily use the Flint River as its
drinking water source, and sort of reboot its 50-year-old water plant to
provide that.”
Changing the source
of water from Lake Huron to the Flint River in 2014 led to issues of
contamination from lead pipes that caused a public health hazard. The incident
is the subject of an extensive article in Wikipedia
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis], and it garnered major
coverage in the traditional national media as well.
The Flint River water
was not given the same treatment that the Lake Huron / Detroit River water had
received, and thus it was left more corrosive to the lead pipes in use in
Flint. One public health study found that high lead levels in Flint children
went from 2.5% of that population to 5% during the period before the condition
was remedied.
On January 5, 2016,
Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, declared the city to be in a state of
emergency, and this was followed by a similar declaration by President Barack
Obama, who authorized additional help from two Federal agencies.
Several government
officials were fired over the incident and over a dozen lawsuits filed. Near
the end of 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate approved
a $170 million program to ameliorate the situation in Flint. In 2017, Flint had
come within the relevant Federal limits for lead in its water supplies. Studies
of the residents’ health during the crisis found an increase in Legionnaires’
disease cases, fetal deaths due to all causes, and a reduction in fertility. A
different study did not find the water to have been a cause of an increase in
stillbirths and neonatal deaths.
An article by the
Mayo Clinic
[https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseasesconditions/lead-poisoning/symptoms-causes/syc-20354717]
notes, “Lead poisoning occurs when lead builds up in the body, often over
months or years. Even small amounts of lead can cause serious health problems.
Children younger than 6 years are especially vulnerable to lead poisoning,
which can severely affect mental and physical development. At very high levels,
lead poisoning can be fatal.
“Lead-based paint and
lead-contaminated dust in older buildings are the most common sources of lead
poisoning in children. Other sources include contaminated air, water and soil.
Adults who work with batteries, do home renovations or work in auto repair
shops also might be exposed to lead.”
The Mayo Clinic
article gives an extensive list of problems caused by lead in the body, and the
unborn and newborn are particularly susceptible. Usual sources of lead
poisoning are related to lead-based paints or lead pipes in older homes.
The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention [https://www.cdc. gov/nceh/lead/default.htm]
indicates there is no safe level of lead in the body, though it has a target of
reducing it to below 10 micrograms per deciliter in blood.
At the start of 2019,
the new governor, Gretchen Whitmer, signed an order requiring prompt public
notification of such harmful environmental conditions in the future.
At the same time, the
performance of the Michigan Department of
Environmental Quality
(MDEQ) was criticized as inadequate and
WATER CRISIS, FLINT, MICHIGAN, 2014-2019
even racist
[https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2019/ 01/04/flint-pipe-replacement-mayor/2242666002/]
by Paul Mohai, a University of Michigan professor; in this article written by
Pamela Pugh, chief public health advisor for the City of Flint, Michigan, it
notes that some commenters have maintained that the citizens of Flint, a
largely minority community, were not given adequate notice and remedy for the
problem caused by the water-source switch, largely done for relatively minor
cost reductions. Pugh finished her piece in the January 4, 2019, Detroit Free Press, this way: “As a new
administration takes over our state’s government, it is a chance for that
government to shift from a place of paternalism and austerity and become a
government that listens to, understands and interacts with its distressed
communities, a government that recognizes the necessity of a recovery and
rebuilding approach that is Flint-driven and solely motivated by making Flint
whole.”
The crisis
underscored the importance of clean, safe drinking water supplies.
or at DWC's amazon.com author's book title list https://www.amazon.com/s?k=douglas+winslow+cooper&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss
No comments:
Post a Comment