preview

Analysis Of Flint And The Nation's Aging Pipeline Infrastructure

Decent Essays

Flint’s and The Nation’s Aging Pipeline Infrastructure
In the wake of Flint’s water crisis it was realized that their aging pipeline infrastructure needed an extreme update. Flint is not the only CIKR catastrophe caused by being too tightly coupled, almost every community around the country has experienced some type of catastrophic infrastructure failure that has led to a “large-scale service interruptions, significant property damage, and human injury” as a result of being tightly coupled (Van Leuven, 2011, pp.40). A lot of the nation’s aging pipeline infrastructure is still in need of renovations or replacement because it has exceeded its planned operating life (Van Leuven, 2011, pp.40).
Matthew Dolan of the Detroit Free Press stated …show more content…

The city officials were not very competent on the WWS. They believed that they could just save money by switch over a few things without fully investing the time in actually understanding how the WWS operates. Over a dozen lawsuits have been filed in local, state and Federal courts involving Flint residents who were directly impacted by the lead contaminated waters. The plaintiffs seek monetary compensations in the millions. One victim sought $100 million because they obtained Legionnaires’ disease, which they believed that they received from the contaminated water (Dixon, 2016). Others are suing an engineering company that was involved with the switching process of the water from the Detroit water system to the Flint River. It is believed that the engineering company knew that the water was dangerous without proper anti-corroding agent (Dixon, 2016). The remaining lawsuits seek everything else, which range from replacing the leaded pipeline infrastructure, medical and health compensation due to contamination, and also water bills (Dixon, 2016). The defendants ranged from state, local, and government officials including the Governor Rick Snyder.
How to address the problem The first thing that needs to be done is to hire competent state officials and emergency managers. The governor did not know the first thing about water nor did the people around him know as well. “Catastrophic failures often have resulted when central

Get Access