I'll keep this brief for now - there's a decent concise history of the water crisis here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5353852/ That report also has some depth on the technical...
That report also has some depth on the technical failures and timeline of who knew what, when. There's an extensive table of reference footnotes at the end if you want to dig deeper.
After the state government took money away from the city of Flint ($5.5 billion in revenue sharing cuts between 1998 and 2016), it used the ensuing budget crisis to impose an emergency manager. The emergency manager appointed by the Governor decided to switch to Flint River water in 2013: https://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/01/michigan_truth_squad_who_appro.html
The outline makes very clear that it was well known, for decades, that the Flint River was an unacceptable water source, and the Governor's office had direct knowledge there were potential problems before the Flint River changeover.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality knew and issued violations for unsafe water quality, but there was zero enforcement and an active gaslighting campaign against residents.
For various personal and professional reasons, I've had cause to follow the politics of Michigan public health. The catastrophes in Flint were caused by a long historical series of deliberate...
For various personal and professional reasons, I've had cause to follow the politics of Michigan public health.
The catastrophes in Flint were caused by a long historical series of deliberate political decisions aimed at cutting services to formerly pro-union, industrialized, predominantly black, Democratic-leaning cities.
You can punish the foot soldiers, but the leadership, like Rick Scott (who's basically a sock puppet for the DeVos clan and the Mackinaw Institute crowd), are the ones who should be jailed for the number of deaths they've caused directly or indirectly.
I'll provide references should anyone care to view the gory details.
I'll keep this brief for now - there's a decent concise history of the water crisis here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5353852/
That report also has some depth on the technical failures and timeline of who knew what, when. There's an extensive table of reference footnotes at the end if you want to dig deeper.
Also: http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/07/10/flint-water-crisis-poisoned-city
https://www.bridgemi.com/truth-squad-companion/disaster-day-day-detailed-flint-crisis-timeline
After the state government took money away from the city of Flint ($5.5 billion in revenue sharing cuts between 1998 and 2016), it used the ensuing budget crisis to impose an emergency manager. The emergency manager appointed by the Governor decided to switch to Flint River water in 2013: https://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/01/michigan_truth_squad_who_appro.html
The outline makes very clear that it was well known, for decades, that the Flint River was an unacceptable water source, and the Governor's office had direct knowledge there were potential problems before the Flint River changeover.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality knew and issued violations for unsafe water quality, but there was zero enforcement and an active gaslighting campaign against residents.
The Governor's office received independent warning about the Legionella outbreak and its likely connection to the Flint water supply in March of 2015: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/02/04/apnewsbreak-officials-warned-of-water-legionnaires-link/79828466/
Hope this has been informative.
For various personal and professional reasons, I've had cause to follow the politics of Michigan public health.
The catastrophes in Flint were caused by a long historical series of deliberate political decisions aimed at cutting services to formerly pro-union, industrialized, predominantly black, Democratic-leaning cities.
You can punish the foot soldiers, but the leadership, like Rick Scott (who's basically a sock puppet for the DeVos clan and the Mackinaw Institute crowd), are the ones who should be jailed for the number of deaths they've caused directly or indirectly.
I'll provide references should anyone care to view the gory details.
I am interested.