Flint Water: Where Science Took a Backseat to the Money

POSTED BY: 1kiki
UPDATED: Monday, July 25, 2016 12:57
VIEWED: 1298
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1KIKI

Wednesday, July 20, 2016 3:54 AM

http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/article/2016/07/flint-water-where-s
cience-took-backseat-money

Flint Water: Where Science Took a Backseat to the Money

General Motors had a problem. The engine blocks in their Flint, Mich. plant were corroding as fast as they came off the production line. In the few months since the city had switched from Detroit water to the supply of the nearby Flint River, everything the factory produced was rusting over.

Tests quickly revealed the cause: elevated levels of chlorides were allowing the water to more-easily oxidize the metal.

The city switched to the river water in April 2014. GM reported its problems within months. After more months of inaction from the city leaders, the company alone switched back to Detroit water in December 2014.

“GM did inform the city,” said David Hand, chair of the civil and environmental engineering department at Michigan Technological University, in an interview with Laboratory Equipment. “No doubt (the city) should have realized they should evaluate the water.”

But for the rest of the homes and businesses of Flint, nothing was done. Residents of the “Vehicle City” continued to drink, bathe and cook with the water. Some complained of rashes and other health effects, but it wasn’t until outside experts showed their many alarming test results to the media and the public that something was done.

And so Flint became a cautionary tale. Experts said the lead levels in the water were just a symptom, however. The simple problem was that science took a backseat to financial and political concerns, experts said.

Caught in the middle were 99,000 citizens who took for granted that regulatory agencies would keep them safe using long-accepted sanitary standards.

Hard times for “Vehicle City”
Flint is a city struggling. Roughly 40 percent of the population lives under the poverty line. The relative affluence of post-World War II and the 1960s disappeared with the changing American economic tide. By the time native son Michael Moore, the filmmaker, made his ballyhooed film “Roger and Me” in 1989, the boomtown was fading fast. Its decline has only sped up ever since—since the mid-1990s, three-quarters of the manufacturing jobs have left the city.

The city was in such dire straits the state passed a law reserving the ability to appoint an emergency manager to straighten out the municipal finances. The first one was appointed in 2011—but the position became a revolving door, with five changes over as many years.

The emergency managers all nonetheless shared an ambitious plan—cheaper water. By building their own water system, and leaving Detroit’s, they would save money in the long run. The $270 million Karegnondi Water Authority plan is still expected to be finished by the end of this year, nearly on schedule.

But the plan came with one drawback. Flint would have to find a water source while the whole thing was being built, over the course of two or more years.

The Flint River was the easy stop-gap choice. Using the existing backup distribution system, city leaders agreed to use the river water as a fallback for two years during the new construction.

With the help of outside consultants, and with the blessing of state and local authorities, the spigot to the river was turned on April 25, 2014.

But the river water was fundamentally different than the Detroit water—and also different from the future source of Lake Huron.

The Flint River has a lower pH, and a different alkalinity. This was not a problem for much of the iron service mains in the city, which provide most of the longer-distance carrying. But many of the service lines in the city—the older and shorter pipes running from the mains to the individual buildings and residences—were made of lead.

The chemical incantation was cast. The lower pH of the river water allowed the lead scale and lead ions to become more soluble in the water running to taps all over the city, said Hand.

Essentially, the untreated water ate away at the lead pipes. The lead was carried to

SHINYGOODGUY

Wednesday, July 20, 2016 2:21 PM

Here's my response.........they knew the water wasn't safe for human consumption.

They knew.

Yet, they still told the good people of Flint that it was safe.

http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=60352

SGG

REAVERFAN

Wednesday, July 20, 2016 5:40 PM

Michigan's governor is to blame. Without his screwing over of so many municipalities, they'd have been able to deal.

JAYNEZTOWN

Wednesday, July 20, 2016 6:22 PM

Nestle CEO: Water Is Not A Human Right

http://naturalsociety.com/nestle-ceo-water-not-human-right-should-be-p
rivatized/

SHINYGOODGUY

Monday, July 25, 2016 12:57 PM

Next thing he'll be saying is that air should be privatized. Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids!

SGG

Quote:
Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:
Nestle CEO: Water Is Not A Human Right

http://naturalsociety.com/nestle-ceo-water-not-human-right-should-be-p
rivatized/