Flint Water Crisis Analysis

The contamination began in April 2014 after the source of the town’s water supply was switched from Lake Huron to the Flint river in order to reduce governmental costs. This was done despite the fact that the Flint River had a strong history of pollution. Among this pollution included car parts, a dead body, and high levels of chemicals. (Semules par 5). Once the pipes were switched there were several complaints of the water having a foul smell and metallic taste (Foley par 4). In the beggining the government denied that anything was wrong despite the fact that lab examinations of the water proved otherwise. Two years after the Flint water crisis gained media attention, the Senate passed a bill that would provide Flint residents with water, but this is

The Flint Water Crisis has quickly joined the ranks of Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance, Kwame Kilpatrick, and the state of Michigan’s highways as nationally televised disappointments to come out of Michigan. This paper will look at the facts surrounding the causes, current situation, and remedies for the Crisis while also confronting the ethical and unethical acts of key figures associated with the Crisis.

Flint in Michigan is located 70 Miles away from the shores of large fresh water bodies, the Great Lakes. Despite this close proximity to the fresh water bodies, the residents have not been able to get the clean water. The water supply of Flint in Michigan in the United States has undergone serious water contamination crisis. The water crisis started in April 2014 (Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, 2016). The contamination of drinking water began when the source of water was changed from the treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to the Flint River. This later led to a serious contamination of the water due to lead contamination hence creating more danger in the public health. The Flint River had a corrosive nature and caused lead from the old pipes to leach into the water supply. This caused heavy metals in the water supply. This posed serious health problems. For example, six thousand to twelve thousand children were exposed to the contaminated water. The blood-lead level in children increased. The alteration in the water source was the main reason behind the water crisis in Flint.

For Flint, it all began with debt. But you cannot blame a debt that has been developing over the years even though it led to major health concerns, hurt the already poor economy and left thousands with nothing but fear. Flint Michigan was an up incoming town back in the eighties. General Motors had its largest plant (at the time) in Flint and this plant brought much of the population while helping the economy grow. GM created many employment opportunities for Flint residents until they began to downsize in the late eighties. This is when the debt began to grow. GM held much of the economy at this time so the downsizing impacted everyone in Flint. As GM downsized the poverty rates increased, Flint’s government began looking for ways to make up the lost money. In 2011, Flint was 25 million dollars in debt and desperately looking for ways to reduce it (Dixon). The city of Flint was now under a state of emergency and people began asking questions. Governor Rick Snyder made the decision with his appointed members to switch Flint’s water supply from the Detroit Water System to Flint’s own river that ran through town. This switch was supposed to save the city of Flint nearly a hundred million dollars however, it did much more than that.

To begin with, the problem was the water contained elevated levels of iron and lead. The problem was such a huge issue because it affected every resident in Flint. Water is a major essential to one’s daily life and dozens of families were using the water supply for several purposes such as showering, drinking, cooking, washing one’s car or home, and watering plants. Furthermore, worried parents are going to the doctor because of rashes and hair loss, it also affected children by dropping their IQ, affecting their behavior, and it has also been inked to criminality and has multigenerational impacts. As a result, the fault of the problem lies with the state DEQ. It was said that the state ignored federal law and didn’t use an anti-corrosive agent to treat the water.

Flint Water Crisis, independent professionals reported testing the drinking water and what was found that there is lead and it was leaching into the main water supply. Contaminated water with lead and iron may be the most intense image of environmental and social injustice. Flint, Michigan, is amongst the poorest in the U.S. and majority African American, since 2014(npr.org 2016). The citizens of Flint had been complaining that their tap water was foul and discolored and had an odd taste. Nonetheless city, state, and federal officials ignored the issue. It has been stated that by changing the Flint water pipeline back to Lake Huron will not rectify the damage, investigators and many researchers believe that it may not be possible to ever undo

I read an article published by NPR about the water crisis still currently happening in Flint, Michigan. The article provides a timeline leading up to the crisis and the backlash it has created in the town. It starts off with Flint city officials deciding whether or not the town can save money by getting their water from another source. To do this they would build their own pipeline and it’s said it would save the town up to $200 million is 25 years. Despite saying the water was safe and clean to use, it still caused a lot of problems. Residents complained about how the water tasted and smelt bad, and General Motors refused to continue using the water because they feared it would cause corrosion and damage to their machines. And instead of testing

An online slideshow titled “How Flint Water Crisis Emerged,” published by MLive, a Michigan news source, written by Wilson, Samuel, Michelle Tessier, and Erin Kirkland gives a timeline of how Flint’s water crisis emerged. The second slide, written by Samuel Wilson, claims that the water crisis actually began in 2013, shortly after Flint’s emergency manager, Ed Kurtz, signed an agreement to stop buying water from Detroit. Kurtz and the city council, in an effort to save money, voted to join a

In 2014, Flint, Michigan chose to switch their water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. During this change, the city did not add any products to the water to stop it from getting polluted. Because there were no products added to the water, the water became extremely contaminated. There was literally no water in Flint that was in drinking condition. Towards the end of the Fall of 2015, Flint’s water crisis went global.

Flint, Michigan has a population of just over 10,000, 36.2% of its population is under the poverty line, and this isn’t even the worse of its problems. Since 2014, the residences of Flint Michigan have been cheated, lied to, and poisoned, all at the hands of its own government. Most consider the governor of Flint, Jerry Ambrose, to be the main culprit. He ignored research that proved Flint’s water was toxic to the body, and then went on to lie to the general population about the safety of the water, Michigan is settled between 4 of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, a fact that served them little in the crisis to come.

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night thirsty? Thirsty that you went to your sink to pour yourself a nice glass of water. Isn’t it nice to be able to trust your tap water? Unfortunately, the citizens of Flint, Michigan are not able to trust their tap. Residents have resorted to buying bottled water in replacement of all their water needs. Bottled water is even necessary for brushing their teeth. The problems in Flint began the summer 2012 when officials explored ways to save money. One idea was to switch the city’s water provider. At the time, Flint got their water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, DWSD, but they could build a pipe and switch to the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA). The move “projected to save the region $200 million over the next 25 years” [4]. The plan was promising, and so Flint city officials began the process. The officials told DWSD that they would no longer be using their services, and the DWSD told Flint that in a year it would remove its services. However, DWSD cut the Flint’s water supply before they could build the pipe and switch to KWA [4]. This led to a need for a temporary water source. Flint officials decided that the Flint River would be the best location to provide the town with water during the transition.

In April 2014, an emergency manager, Darnell Earley, switched Flint’s water from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Not long after the switch, people began complaining about the color of their water changing. Then, in 2015, some Virginia Tech researchers found out that the water from the river was eroding the pipes. Soon after that, they realized that lead had been getting into the water. So, they tested the water and came up with some startling results. Some homes exceeded one hundred parts per billion, suggesting many were well above the World Health Organization’s lead limit for safe drinking water of ten parts per billion. (Kuehn.) So naturally, the government immediately should have done something for their people, right? Well obviously that’s

The water crisis in flint is just another example of racism and discrimination in the 21st century. This kind of problem would not happen in a city like fort Thomas. The government thought they could “pull a fast one” and try to save money. but once everything started to backfire they just denied all blame. This is just one example join one small place in the world where the government took advantage of the people. millions of other scandals like this are happening right now. this is just a classic example of the government taking advantage of the people. the crisis in flint is not the peoples fault, they are the victims, it is the governments fault because they just turned a blind eye to the issue, picked saving money over the well-being of there citizens, and added additional hardships to the family of flint, proving that the government should be

The United States is heading to Third World country status in warp speed after the findings of the Flint water crisis. Have you ever imagined that the United States would have an issue of water contamination within our own water supply systems? The Flint water crisis was an act of ignorance and a water war between City of Flint and Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD). The greatest water war in Michigan’s history was contributed to vast pollutions of water. In April 2014, Flint started using the Flint River as it new water source. A state expert said, "The quality of the water being put out meets all of our drinking water standards, and Flint water is safe to drink” (Bosman, J., Davey, M., & Smith, M., 2016). General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan also complained that the water was corroding new car parts and even stopped using Flint water in October 2014. Flint water contributed to the mass poisoning of over 100,000 Flint

Flint, Michigan is a small, predominately African-American poverty-stricken town 70 miles north of Detroit. Once a powerhouse for General Motors, the city hit an economic recession when GM began closing some of its factories. During a 2011 audit of the city’s finances, the state of Michigan decided to handle all of Flint’s finances in order to better manage a multi-million dollar deficit. The State determined that money from