Flint Residents Paid a Premium for Poisoned Water

In Oct. 2014, General Motors’s Flint plant stopped using the water when they became anxious it was corroding their metal, MLive.com reported.

Gov. Snyder said the state is working on their plan to work towards replacement of lead service lines in Flint, but he urged caution should be taken to forego potential additional issues in the city’s water system.

People attending the event gave almost $2,600.

The crisis in Flint began when the city switched its water source from Detroit’s system to the Flint River, without adding corrosion controls to prevent the more mineral rich water from eroding the city’s lead pipes. Tests later showed high lead levels in some Flint children.

A survey of the nation’s 500 largest water systems by public interest group Food and Water Watch published Tuesday found that Flint residents paid the highest water rates in the US.

The Flint firm hired by the state is no stranger to the city’s water system.

On Wednesday, city officials in Flint debated how quickly to replace lead pipes in the city after officials announced different approaches to solving the city’s drinking water crisis.

Experts suggest it can, but that trusted individuals – the researchers who exposed the water contamination and federal officials – need to take larger roles to fix the water system and restore public trust. But such a step needs to be on the table, because lead, as most of us know by now, is a bad-news neurotoxin that can permanently affect brain development and learning.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and state health and environmental regulators compounded this awful decisionmaking by ignoring and disparaging Flint residents who complained about poor water quality and foul odors.

“From emergency management in MI to failed privatization experiments across the country, corporate influence has failed US water systems”, said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter.

By the time of the 2013 Detroit bankruptcy, water rates had been rising by an average of eight percent yearly for over a decade.

“How long is the water sitting in the pipes before it actually gets to the home and is there some relationship between water age and the lead levels”.

The governor, facing pressure from Flint Mayor Karen Weaver and national civil rights leaders for quicker action, said his ultimate goal is to replace the old pipes, but the state-funded study is needed to locate them and prioritize which ones to remove first.

At the time, the city was run by a state-appointed emergency manager charged with reducing the city’s deficit.

The official narrative is that Flint severed its half-century ties with DWSD as a cost-saving measure due to Detroit’s high water rates.

Since the crisis exploded into public view late a year ago, Snyder, along with the Environmental Protection Agency, have been criticized for not moving fast enough to stem the contamination. But Snyder has been widely criticized for his role in the crisis, and should not be the main messenger about the state’s response effort, she said.