Narrative Essay About Life In Flint

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

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.

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.

There currently is a problem in the US with the government and how they cut corners with the water problem in Flint, Michigan. About two years ago, Michigan’s government decided they would save money by switching the water supply in Flint, Michigan. Before, Flint was getting their water from Lake Huron. Now, they are getting their water from the Flint River, known by it’s filth through the people of Flint. When reporters interviewed long-time residents of Flint they were shocked at the decision. The decision was supposed to be temporary, it wasn’t planned for it to go on for almost two years. Soon after the switch, the people of Flint saw the water didn’t look, smell, or taste right. It was almost as if the water was brown and you could see the dirt in it. Most people thought it was sewage but it turn out to be iron. The Flint River is highly contaminated, 19 times more so than Lake Huron. The state Department of Environmental Quality wasn’t treating the river so, the water was building up iron which caused the water to turn brown. The water was worse than it seemed, half the service line to homes in Flint are made of lead because the water wasn’t treated like it was supposed to be. The lead got into the water and mixed with the iron. The fire stations are helping with providing free bottled water and water filters for the homes. The fire stations also gave out lead testing kits

Flint water crisis has been a low key story that did flush out into mainstream media until recently in early 2016 when President Baraka Obama declared this as a federal state of emergency. This crisis began in April 2014 when Flint’s water supply had been switch from Lake Huron, Detroit’s water system, to the Flint River which has high rates of contamination (Craven and Tynes 2016). After many complaints and petitions to switch the water supply back to Lake Huron’s water, the water source was still not switch over, because the river was claimed “safe” by the white people who held power. However, when the switch was made, the water pipes made of lead are already damaged and contaminated. Leading poisoning in children became a serious issue as many children began to show signs of poisoning and a chance for them to get Legionnaire’s disease. Surprisingly enough, when searching up “Flint Water Crisis”, there was no article that listed race as a potential factor into this decision of switching water supplies, until the addition of “racism” to the search bar to find many articles on this case. The reason to switch water supplies seems to be just saving 15 million dollars (Martinez 2016). However, Flint is a heavily populated black community, more than 57% are black, and Flint is about 40 % poor (United States Census 2016). Therefore, Flint water crisis is the intersection of race, poverty, money and power of a current society that believes in colorblindness and that residential

The Flint water crisis is an issue that has been plaguing the state of Michigan for over two years and has no feasible end in sight. The neglect of various government officials and employees has culminated in a public health danger for thousands of Michigan residents, by way of consumption of water with high levels of lead. Though the individuals deemed responsible for this deplorable situation have lost or resigned from their positions, and some criminal charges have been brought about, there is still a lot that has to be done to try and repair the damage that they did.

The crisis all began in April of 2014 when Flint changed their water source from the Detroit water to Flint River in order to save money. Despite reports and health claims, the city neglected to address the water issue, and even corrupted water analysis data at the risk of the city resident’s health. In September of 2014 the city issued no less than three E. Coli warnings and advised citizens to boil all water before use. General motors found the water unsuitable for industrial use and ceased the use of Flint’s water in October 2014, not 5 months after the switch. The water was too acidic and would corrode their cars as well as disrupt the metallic structure due to the metals and compounds within the water. General Motors pushed the city to analyze the water’s safety and insisted that it is neither safe to use in industry nor for drinking. Not

The Flint Water Crisis: What went wrong, article was written by Ryan Felton in January 16, 2016. The story of the article takes place in Flint, Michigan. The city of Flint experienced a crisis that has not been experienced in any other city across the nation. The article states that what happen in flint should not have happened, a city with 100,000 residents should not have to worry about poisoned water running into their homes. The water issue started when Flint appointed emergency manager Darnell Earley, decided to switch Flint’s water source form the city of Detroit to a local Flint River. This switched was aim to find a cheap alternative water source for the residents. However, what the officials failed to do was to test the water and see

As Doidge et al. illustrate, the historical background of Flint City’s drinking water supply emanated from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. This was through a contractual basis for over three decades, and its main source of water was Lake Huron. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is an extensive system encompassing almost 1,080 square-miles, and provides to more than two fifths of the Michigan State population. In the year 2000 alone, the system covered 11,000 miles of water channels with a storage volume of about 360 million gallons. It supplied water to nearly four million people in Detroit and its metropolitan locale.

In her article, Flint Water Crisis, Dr. Mona Hann-Attisha, discusses the occurrence about highly elevated, possibly but not yet actually harmful levels of lead in the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, received national attention. She describes Flint, Michigan, was once a postindustrial home to flourishing automotive plants; the water crisis has been described as an example of government wrongdoing and disrepair by some and of a lack of omission by federal environmental regulators by others. She points to the tendency prior to a series of tests by independent researchers at Virginia Tech in October 2015, many residents found that their unease about the water’s taste, odor, and smell were being disregard intentionally by city and state officials,

The inaccessibility of clean water has burdened Flint Michigan in recent years; however it is not algal bloom or overflowing sewers that has contaminated local water sources, rather it is highly corrosive water that destroyed old lead pipes. Flint, Michigan is located a little over an hour north of the lively city of Detroit. Flint’s population totals around 100,000 citizens. This city has attracted nationwide attention, in the last few years, as economic despair and widespread water contamination continues to burden the suburb to this day. Economic tension in Flint surfaced in 2011, when the state’s auditing determined that Flint was buried by economic ruin: precisely a $25 million deficit. As a result, in April of 2015, the water supply

In the early months of 2016, I learned of the water crisis taking place in Flint, Michigan. When I heard the first reports of what had taken place, I was in disbelief. I could not believe that a city in America had citizens who could not obtain clean drinking water. I assumed everyone had a right to clean water. I was personally challenged and moved by the sufferings of the people in Flint, I wondered how I could help.

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.

The water crisis in Flint, Michigan shocked and outraged many Americans. It was true, a simple water source change from one source to another in the city of Flint turned into a State of Emergency as declared by the governor. Toxic water from the Flint River had filtered into thousands of homes in the town near Detroit. Keeping lead out of the drinking water is something modern society view as a fundamental and common sense action. As such, countless citizens wondered how something like this could ever happen in the United States. Indeed, the missteps by the city of Flint, Michigan must be examined in terms of both decision-making and chemistry in order to make appropriate adjustments for the future.

Flint is still in the same condition it was back then, if not worse. And they owe it all to Roger Smith. Let’s talk about the most relevant thing that is happening in Flint right now. Since April 2014, the people of Flint have been exposed to high levels of lead content in their water. This happened when they changed their water source from Detroit's Lake Huron, the largest source of fresh drinking water in the world, to Flint's local river. Governor Snyder of Flint wanted to save money, but in turn, over 100,000 of residents were exposed to an insufficient water source. And at only 100 dollars a day for three months, the water crisis could have been solved. Flint’s river water was said to be 19 times more corrosive than the original water from Lake Huron. All of the 9,000 children have been exposed to the tainted water and too many have been tested positive for lead poisoning. If this wasn’t bad of the government enough, while the children of Flint were drinking lead water, General Motors was getting hooked up with clean water from Lake Huron. When GM noticed that the water was corroding their cars, Snyder was shocked that GM property was being damaged. A “quiet” 440,000 was spent in order to hook up GM with clean water. But I guess that’s besides the point. In January 2016, a federal state of emergency was declared. All were instructed only to use bottled water for drinking and bathing. And the most shocking part? The people of Flint did