The Troubled Waters of Flint, Michigan

We sadly have watched, like everyone, this community disaster unfold.  As bad as it is, and hearts bleed for Flint, the wives, husbands, children getting sick from high levels of contamination, this is just the beginning of similar tragedies unfolding in many cities and towns.

We've done a lot of reporting and work on our decaying pipes and urban infrastructure.  Our delivery systems of water, gas other utilities are shot.   No money has been spent to upgrade core components.  Much of the Northeast underground is antiquated.

We sometimes take for granted our access to modern conveniences.  Perhaps we will not ever do that again.  The health risk, when the system breaks down is, as we see here, staggering.  Kids, of course, will take the brunt of the illness and long-term ramifications.  Very sad.

Typical, as we see here in this story, are our myopic decisions to save money and not treat aggressively possible flaws in our systems.  The fallout on this one will be massive.  Let's hope it spurs consideration and remediation, where necessary, around the world:

Go to our main site, Renewable Now.biz, for more stories and this week's interview with Stuart Scott of Faith and Science Initiative.  God knows we'll need lots of faith and science to get us out of some of these crises.  

Is Flint, Michigan ground zero in the United States when it comes to authorities being held accountable for unhealthy, and what some consider to be poisonous drinking water from the result of their own actions?

The contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan (United States), started in April 2014, after the change in source from treated Lake Huron water (via Detroit) to the Flint River, the city's drinking water had a series of problems that culminated with lead contamination, creating a serious public health danger. According to some reports 90% of this problem could have been avoided if an anti-corrosive agent treatment, at a cost about $100 a day, was applied. But for reasons that are now be investigated by the Feds and the State Attorney General, those in-charge choose not to administer the treatment to the contaminated water. The fall-out so far has seen four government officials—one from the City of Flint, two from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and one from the Environmental Protection Agency—resign over the mishandling of the crisis, and Michigan Governor Snyder issued an apology to citizens, while promising money to Flint for medical care and infrastructure upgrades.

We all need to pay particular attention to what is happening at Flint, while not forgetting the disaster of Gold King Mine when on August 5 , 2015 millions of gallons of toxic wastewater was released in rivers in three states by an EPA error. Clean drinking water shouldn’t be a pricey luxury in fancy (mostly plastic) bottles, with slick names, and most of all our water shouldn’t be contaminated by avoidable mistakes by those in government offices, and agencies.

ReNewable Now came across an interesting post on FLINT WATER STUDY by Dr. Marc Edwards that we wanted to share with our readers. We were particularly shocked when Dr. Edwards wrote, “Consultants also openly bragged about approaches, that would make lead in water look low during EPA compliance sampling, even when it was high when people were drinking the water, at national meetings right in front of OGWDW officials.” This reminds us of what Volkswagen did with emission testing. Maybe these consultants need to be named, and if such testing took place those involved need to be held accountable. To read the rest of Dr. Edwards article click here.

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