Post: #29

(03-08-2016 03:06 PM)Love Child Wrote:  A few months after Gov. Snyder removed Flint from the clean fresh water we had been drinking for decades, the brass from General Motors went to him and complained that the Flint River water was causing their car parts to corrode when being washed on the assembly line. The governor was appalled to hear that GM property was being damaged, so he jumped through a number of hoops and quietly spent $440,000 to hook GM back up to the Lake Huron water, while keeping the rest of Flint on the Flint River water.

Which means that while the children in Flint were drinking lead-filled water, there was one -- and only one -- address in Flint that got clean water: the GM factory.


I would like to find out if that is true.

Dispicable.

I'm not sure that Governor Snyder footed the bill for the GM hook up to Lake Huron, Love Child -- it's murky to me.

Here's what I found at a fact check site:
Moore: General Motors Was Given a Special Hookup to the Clean Water. A few months after Governor Snyder removed Flint from the clean fresh water we had been drinking for decades, the brass from General Motors went to him and complained that the Flint River water was causing their car parts to corrode when being washed on the assembly line.

Fact: "Shortly after the city switched from purchasing treated Lake Huron water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department system to drawing its own from the Flint River in April 2014, the Detroit automaker raised concerns with city officials: The new water was corroding engine parts at GM’s Flint Engine Operations. The problem was the amount of chlorine in the water that had been treated by the city, Wickham said. The corrosion was not directly caused by the quality of water coming from the river — which state officials said in October had excessive levels of lead." [1]

Moore: The Governor was appalled to hear that GM property was being damaged, so he jumped through a number of hoops and quietly spent $440,000 to hook GM back up to the Lake Huron water

FACT: Due to the plant’s location on the Flint city limits, the switch was relatively easy, but reportedly would cost the city upward of $400,000 a year in lost revenue. The switchover was widely reported by local media. GM paid an undisclosed amount to connect to the township’s system.

It should be noted that GM employs 7,000 Flint residents - if the cars parts were not in any condition to be assembled, the state would have to pay much more than $400,000 in unemployment and other benefits until the water issue for GM was resolved, which at the time was not known to be a lead or copper issue.

Post: #30

In any case, I agree with you that Snyder's handling of the situation was despicable.

At minimum, he knew that GM was having issues with water from the new Flint River source; water which was being treated so heavily with chlorine that it was eroding their auto parts. He knew that GM had connected back to Detroit's Lake Huron supply.

At that time, residents had already started complaining that the water was discolored and problematic, but they were told by Snyder's appointed city manager and the then-mayor to just drink up.

In my opinion, the awareness of GM's issues should have prompted Snyder and others to act and should have raised a flag that the water, which was not being treated with the anti-corrosive legally required, could also be corroding lead pipes used to deliver water to the residents.

Post: #31

I wonder if beer sales went up in Flint?

Post: #32

Dave Matthews Band CD sales increased.

Post: #33

I was in the service with a guy from Flint, he was real close to being an albino but he didn't have pink eyes.

Post: #34

I'm in the same boat as Duch. I don't rely on city water. I use a well. Plus I don't drink the stuff. I just bathe and cook with it. Plus I live on a spring fed lake. H2o, or lack of it never crosses my mind.

Post: #35

The shit is hitting the fan, politically...



Snip:
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency and the governor of Michigan faced calls to resign from angry lawmakers Thursday, as a congressional oversight committee bore in on which level of government was most responsible for the contamination of Flint’s water supply.

Repeatedly shouting at EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) faulted her for failing to require the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to move more quickly after lead was discovered in the tap water of some Flint homeowners.

“If you want to do the courageous thing, like you said [former EPA Midwest region head] Susan Hedman did, you, too, should resign,” Chaffetz thundered.

When McCarthy tried to explain the limits of the EPA’s power under the law, Chaffetz repeatedly cut her off. “Well it failed,” he yelled. “You failed.”

But Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R ) received his own blasts of criticism, some of it sarcastic, when Democrats were asking the questions. “Plausible deniability only works when it’s plausible,” Pennsylvania Rep. Matt Cartwright told Snyder as he pressed why the governor was slow to act. “You were not in a medically induced coma for a year.

“We’ve had enough of your false contrition and your phony apologies,” Cartwright said. “You’re doing your dead level best to spread accountability. ... You need to resign, too.”

This second of two contentious hearings on lead in Flint’s water followed the same pattern as the session Tuesday, with a federal official blaming the state for causing the disaster and the governor pointing the finger at the EPA for moving too slowly in its oversight role.

Full story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/...ge%2Fstory

Post: #36

Surely there are ways and means to get to the bottom of where it all began. How do you live with yourself if you knew what was going down and did nothing. If you haven't got the power to do anything at the very least you should have shouted it from the rooftops immediately.

Post: #37

Why? The water wasn't going to their house!

Post: #38

(03-17-2016 12:50 PM)Duchess Wrote:  

Surely there are ways and means to get to the bottom of where it all began. How do you live with yourself if you knew what was going down and did nothing. If you haven't got the power to do anything at the very least you should have shouted it from the rooftops immediately.

From all I've read, it's no mystery how it all began and what's happened since.

It's a question of those involved pointing fingers at each other, with legislatures now investigating to determine where the various levels of liability rest and assigning accountability.

P.s. I was glad to read that Flint residents are no longer receiving (hiked) water bills for water they can't even use, and they will be refunded payments for those such bills already paid.

Post: #39

Criminal Charges Filed

Two state regulators and a Flint utilities employee were charged Wednesday with evidence tampering and other felonies and misdemeanors, for the first time raising the lead-tainted water crisis in the Michigan city to a criminal case.

Michael Prysby, a state DEQ district engineer, and Stephen Busch, who is a supervisor with the DEQ's Office of Drinking Water, were both charged with misconduct in office, conspiracy to tamper with evidence, tampering with evidence and misdemeanor violations of water law. They're both accused of failing to order chemicals to control corrosion. Michigan environmental regulators have acknowledged misreading federal regulations and wrongly telling the city that the chemicals were not needed.

Flint city's utilities administrator Michael Glasgow also was charged Wednesday with tampering with evidence for changing lead water-testing results and willful neglect of duty as a public servant.

Busch is on paid leave after being suspended earlier. Prysby recently took another job in the agency. Glasgow testified at a legislative hearing that Prysby told him phosphate was not needed to prevent lead corrosion from pipes until after a year of testing.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said at press conference today, "They failed Michigan families. Indeed, they failed us all -- I don't care where you live." He also guaranteed that there will be more charges filed, but didn't give details.

Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/michigan-fli...s-charges/

Post: #40

There is a group of men holding a press conference who have been investigating this water crisis in Flint. These men are pissed! One of them just said he has never in his career done an investigation that has effected him the way this one has and he went on to give examples of why and he talked about the little kids who had been lead poisoned. Sad Sad Sad. Those involved in the coverup are going to pay a very high price, as they should!

Post: #41

(07-29-2016 11:47 AM)Duchess Wrote:  There is a group of men holding a press conference who have been investigating this water crisis in Flint. These men are pissed! One of them just said he has never in his career done an investigation that has effected him the way this one has and he went on to give examples of why and he talked about the little kids who had been lead poisoned. Sad Sad Sad. Those involved in the coverup are going to pay a very high price, as they should!

Six more state employees were criminally charged this morning in connection with the Flint water crisis, bringing the total to 9.

Snip:
Charged are Michigan Department of Health and Human Services workers Nancy Peeler, Corinne Miller and Robert Scott, and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality employees Leanne Smith; Adam Rosenthal and Patrick Cook.

In April, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced felony charges against two Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials and one City of Flint official. At that time, he promised more criminal charges would be forthcoming.

The city employee, Mike Glasgow, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor and is cooperating with the investigation as other charges were dropped. The two DEQ employees, Stephen Busch and Mike Prysby, are awaiting preliminary examinations.

Full story: http://www.wltx.com/news/6-state-employe.../284182073
---------------------------------

Today's press conference by the prosecutor's office made it very clear that there was a major cover-up involved.

It still really pisses me off. Those charged are officials who were working for government agencies designed to protect people from health and environmental risks.

Not only did those officials fail in that charter; they were allegedly complicit in increasing and prolonging the health risks to the people of Flint.

Post: #42

These people still don't have clean water. How do you think you all would be feeling right about now if this were happening to you? This is bullshit.