Flint, Michigan is situated about 65 miles north of Detroit, and was the primary manufacturing centre for GM’s Buicks and Chevrolets. These days, however, it is just a poster child for post-industrial decay and is more famous for the fact that its nearly 100,000 predominantly African-American residents, including thousands of children, are being poisoned by toxic levels of lead in the drinking water.
Incompetence by state officials has led to the city’s drinking water containing levels of heavy metal exceeding the threshold for “hazardous waste. A state of emergency was declared by both state and federal governments, and President Obama said that the level of the foot-dragging by state authorities in responding to this crisis was “inexplicable and inexcusable.”
While the governor apologised and promised to fix the problem, much of the damage cannot be fixed. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), lead poisoning shortens attention spans, impairs cognitive function, and spurs antisocial behaviour and the “neurological and behavioural effects of lead are believed to be irreversible.”
What is possibly the most tragic is that it is all about the mighty dollar! Flint was so broke in 2011 that it was taken into state receivership, which led to a revolving door of “emergency managers” being appointed to govern the city and cut costs, which led to the decision to stop getting drinking water from the Detroit water authority and pull water out of the Flint river instead in 2013.
Unfortunately, the Flint River is tainted by sewage, agricultural runoff, and decades of industrial effluent. Flint residents began complaining about discoloured drinking water almost immediately, and by August 2014, residents were receiving warnings to boil the drinking water due to E. coli pollution.
Although the water was treated, Flint River water contains high levels of chloride, which corrodes iron – corroding iron consumes chlorine, which basically negates any pathogen-killer that is added to drinking water to make it safe. Add to this the aging pipes that Flint’s drinking water flows through and you have a pretty fair picture of the problem.
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