Swamp Country Po Boy

Swamp Country Po Boy's Journal

January 13, 2021

6 years after Flint water crisis, Michigan's ex-governor to face charges

Source: Grist

By Adam Mahoney on Jan 13, 2021 at 3:09 pm

Rick Synder was governor of Michigan when the state approved a 2014 cost-saving plan that switched the city of Flint’s water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewage Department water to the Flint River while a pipeline was built to Lake Huron. The water, however, was not treated to reduce corrosion, leading the majority-Black community of 100,000 to drink and use water laced with heavy metal neurotoxins, coliform bacteria, and lead. Some homes still lack access to clean water today.

Six years, 8 months, and three weeks since Flint’s drinking water became contaminated, Snyder, his health director Nick Lyon, and at least seven other ex-officials have been told they’re being charged for their role in the scandal.

In a 2016 testimony, the city’s utilities chief explained the city’s water treatment plant wasn’t capable of adding corrosion-control treatment without equipment upgrades the budget-strapped city “couldn’t afford.” The untreated water then flowed through aging lead pipes used in much of the city, adding to the contamination.

Bacteria in the water led to multiple outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease, which causes a severe form of pneumonia, especially in people with weakened immune systems. The crisis led to 12 deaths in the first 18 months after the change in water sources, though activists and journalists believe the total is much larger because officials only counted deaths of those who were diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease and died while hospitalized or within 30 days of leaving the hospital. A 2019 report by PBS, estimated the crisis was responsible for another 90 deaths.

The Michigan state attorney general’s office declined to comment on details of the ongoing investigation, but charges are expected Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

Read more: https://grist.org/justice/former-michigan-governor-rick-snyder-to-be-charged-flint-water-crisis/

Loooooooooooooooooooooong overdue!