I just can’t imagine an issue involving an entire city’s drinking water dragging on for five whole years; what were the challenges involved that prevented the local government from solving it right away? Shouldn’t they have treated it more expeditiously and with greater urgency since people were literally getting sick from drinking it? I tried to read the Wiki on it but it’s pretty hard to follow and it seems there was way too much finger pointing going on
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Because it was a local problem trying to be solved without local involvement and it became a political football. Chances are, it was resolved, but was still referenced for years after the fact.
Money, it’s always about money.
The drinking water was fixed in months. But the real problem was confidence in the government and that’s much harder to fix
It’s not resolved. In fact, it’s gotten worse in most parts of southeast michigan.
Because the city is more than 50% black and nobody in power gives a f_ck.
Largely funding, politics, efficiency. Band aids to a larger problem until it was clear a lot more needed to be done than the bare minimum.
Like a cheap home owner/land lord trying to address a mold issue by just painting over it lol.
Infrastructure problems are slow and expensive to fix. Especially ones that require interruption of critical services.
Poor people don’t matter.
Political corruption to the max. It’s still not resolved.
Resolved? Who said it was resolved?
Because government?
Because it affected poor people.
From what I understand, it’s not resolved and many people are still enduring long-term effects from the tainted water. It seems that a deeply neglected infrastructure in a poor minority location wasn’t a project that required a real solution; it was just an opportunity for grandstanding.
I live in Flint. This is mostly a rant with some details for anyone that’s curious. It’s largely false that the water crisis is still ongoing, despite what some people say. The majority of the project has been completed for years, though there are some neighborhoods that are still having issues. (I believe those ones are the extremely impoverished ones and usually are the ones that are helped last…) You can find online articles about some of these homes that still have lead issues due to a variety of reasons. We as a community continue to fight to help get clean water for those households.
The city did its best to swap back to the clean water source as soon as possible, but once the damage was done, it seemed like the admin sat on its hands. Many of the elected officials seemed to do that. It created a massive distrust in the local government, and while our last report was about 3ppb (if i remember correctly, though the reports are on the city’s website) that is still felt today. I can’t blame people, especially due to how expensive our water is now. For a two person household, I pay $88.88 a month for water and sewage.
Anyway… Since Flint received the federal funding and got their ducks in a row, they’ve been digging up and replacing lines to houses, whether they were galvanized or lead lines, with copper, free of cost. I believe they’re wrapping that up, and you can find maps of houses that have records of new copper pipes.
Oh, and nobody on the administrative level will ever be held responsible, and the payouts for the people harmed still haven’t been released. People want, and still want, blood for all the harm that has been done, but that will never come.
Edit: grammar, additional detail
GOP chicanery
incompetent leadership
Because like many plumbing issues there’s not just one quick fix It’s a complicated problem that requires digging up and working on / replacing large amounts of public infrastructure and oftentimes this infrastructure passes under important places like busy roads or important buildings which can make those repairs much more difficult more expensive and more time consuming
The fact you think it is resolved, yet it is in fact unresolved, is the point.
Propaganda is a hell of a thing, and the US does more of it than anyone else
City goes bankrupt. Mayor exchanged for emergency managers (state’s decesion). Need money. See(s) that multiple millions could be saved by NOT using the water system of nearby city like they were doing. Turns on old water treatment plants that stayed unused for a LONG time. Infrastructure + lack of experienced workers here failed to catch problems. Old infrastructure used lead pipes. Not normally a problem a pipes become lined with calcium over time. Uhoh. New water is acidic. Pipes no longer calcium covered, lead now leches into water. People complain. Largely ignored, blame gets pushed around. Problem becomes known. No money. City is 30+% unemployed, another chunk in poverty… who can afford more tax if rich already moved out of city due to issues. Fixing costs lots of money and time as few specialized tools exist to swap pipes. City does switch back to old water system. Half fixed. Damage to people done.
Denial by the govt there, the overall income level of the population there. Face it if it were a population of Uber rich, it would have been fixed toot sweet.