Hi Edubloggers,
Today for my Free Post I wanted to talk about the Flint Water crisis and how it affected the city physically, emotionally, and politically.
First before we get into the crisis, here is a little bit of information about the city of Flint. Flint is a city near the Flint river and is the fourth largest metropolitan, and seventh largest city in Mid-Michigan. The city is famous with their General Motor Plants. (GM)
The city which was founded in 1855 has been exposed to problems since it was founded like the deep economic depression after the 1960s, GM significantly downsizing its workforce in the area (In 1978, there were 80,000 compared to 2010, there are under 8,000,) its drastic population drop, high crime rates, and most recently the water crisis.
The crisis started in 2011 when Michigan took over the city and three years later decided to budget cut some necessities such as by switching the water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River as a temporary fix for making a pipe to direct water from lake Huron to the putrid Flint River.
“It had been relying on water from Lake Huron from the Detroit Water Department for about 50 years. The quality was good, but there was a lot of unhappiness about the affordability. It was extremely expensive — the most expensive or among the most expensive water rates in the country. And especially for a city with a very high poverty rate, this was really getting to the point of crisis. And a lot of folks really felt like, ‘We want our own water system. We want some more control.’ So it decided, it was under state-appointed emergency management, that it was going to switch to a new water department. And until that new water department was built, it was going to temporarily use the Flint River as its drinking water source, and sort of reboot its 50-year-old water plant to provide that.”
There were a few problems such as the old pipes, the different treating of river water, and the fact that they were not treated with corrosion control (A solution you add to the water to help keep our very old, ill-maintained water lines from breaking down and having the metals contaminate the water.) As a result of this, Flint residents have complained saying the water smelled and tasted funny. The government took action be tripling the chlorine put into the water soon causing problems of its own. Later on, samples of the water have found traces of E coli as well as lead. They have also found the water severely discolored from the natural clear color we are used to, to a dark orange-ish liquid contaminated from the failing water lines.
In march of 2015, Flint City Council members vote 7-1 to stop using river water and to reconnect with Detroit. However, state-appointed emergency manager Jerry Ambrose overrules the vote, calling it “incomprehensible,” claiming that costs would skyrocket and that “water from Detroit is no safer than water from Flint.” To save people from drinking the vile water, they have sent bottles of water to compensate.
Now here we are in 2018 where Rick Snyder is planning to stop distributing water bottles since it is believed that the plant has improved immensely and the water is safe in consume. Residents, however are skeptical, what do you think? Are the tests provable and will the crisis come to an end? Leave A comment. I would like to read your ideas or concerns.