The Flint Water Scandal
Introduction and History: What is Flint?
Flint, Michigan is a poverty stricken town sixty six miles North West of Detroit.
It has a population of 425,790 (as of 2010), and became an economic boom town after WWII as an automotive manufacturer for GM. After a long period of prosperity, in 1980 disaster hit.
The city was launched into a large depression with the failure of the GM factories in the area. The crime rate sky rocketed in the early 2000's. Flint has been named one of the most dangerous cities in the united states
Since 2000, they have gone through a multiude of mayors. In 2002 they named their current emergency funds manager, Ed Kurtz. In 2015, they elected their current mayor Karen Weaver.
Current Situation
In an effort to save costs, the city swiched from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water source (originally from Lake Huron of the Great Lakes) to the Flint River source in April 2014
The original source was well treated and monitored, however, the new source was untreated and contaminated with iron. Not to mention that half the pipes connecting to the homes in Flint are made of lead.
As time went on, more and more residents of Flint, specifically children became ill, losing weight and halting growing all together. It has been estimated that between 6,000-12,000 children now have varying degrees of lead poisoning.
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, one of the Doctors leading the crusade against the government of Flint, was quoted in a segment on CNN; "(In) one specific neighborhood, the percentage of kids with lead poisoning went from 5% to almost 16% of the kids that were tested."
The city of Flint, to say the least, is angry, specifically with the actions of the acting members of their government.
The Aftermath
Republican Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency on January 5th 2016, which allowed for the federal government to provide aid to the town.
Except many citizens are still angry as they feel that not enough was done to prevent this from happening. As one distraught mother said, "These are my kids. These are everybody's kids."
This situation has turned into a blame game of Democrats and Republicans. There are allegations that the Environmental Protection Agency knew of the issue months before they stepped in. Other allegations in this case include the ones against the Michigan Governor and against the democratic city council.
This issue has been marred with controversy , specifically politically, but a viable, long term solution has yet to be offered admist the blame game.
The solution
After the declaration, $5 million was given to the city of Flint for bottles of water, filtration, and water testing kits that were trucked in in order to a least give the citizens of Flint access to clean water temporarily. Rick Snyder has been quoted as saying "We're taking every action within reason and actually asking people to go beyond reasonable to help address this question because this is something nobody wanted to see ever happen."
But, these are the only steps that have been taken to help the people of Flint. There is further talk of replacing the lead pipes, but as to quote Laura Sullivan, a Mechanical Engineering Professor at Kettering University in Flint, "All the pipes need to bee replaced- and that can't happen in two weeks, or even in a month."
The reality is that replacing pipes is all important, but its not a complete solution. The reason that this all happened was because of a large oversight in the government of Flint.
This isn't a discussion of who is to blame, republican or democrats, it is a discussion of policy. The Clean Water Act of 1977, "establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and regulating quality standards for surface waters." This act was put in place in order to prevent the pollutant of lakes and rivers, such as the Cuyahoga River Fire in 1967. However, this act cannot do anything for the natural leaching of iron deposits in the Flint River, nor can it do anything for the lead piping within the community of Flint.
What needs to be done is new policies that requires regular matinence to the infrastructure of poverty stricken towns that is government funded. A large issue during the current presidential election is the lack of programs for those living below the poverty lines, and this is a clear example of the need for one.
The lack of funding in Flint is apparent not only in their failing infastructure but also in their general living situation. Raising taxes, even by a minimal amount can start funding cities and towns that are desperately in need of help.