There was no need for a water treatment facility in Flint with pre-treated water from Lake Huron running through the pipes. When the water treatment facility was reopen there was even no assessment ti reflects the poor conditions of the plant.
January 17, 2019
By Ron Fonger
Flint -- A drinking water expert (click here) says regulators at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality should have known they were flirting with disaster when they allowed the city to treat its own water in 2014.
Robert Bowcock, who visited Flint’s water plant in early 2015, told Genesee District Court Judge Jennifer Manley Wednesday, Jan. 15, that he could see problems as soon as he walked in the front door and so should have DEQ officials who had oversight responsibilities.
“It was a mess and the reason it was a mess was it was a treatment plant ... that was seldom used ... and sat in mothballs 50 weeks out of the year ...,” said Bowcock, a longtime associate of environmental activist Erin Brockovich. “It was sort of like grandma’s Chevy .. full of spider webs, dust and bad oil.”
Flint’s water source was changed from pre-treated Lake Huron water to the Flint River in April 2014 and the city’s treatment plant was put into full-time operation for the first time since 1967 in what was promoted as a temporary, cost-saving move while the city was being run by a state-appointed emergency manager....
The idea the water treatment plant in Flint was out of repair and out of any operation 50 out of 52 weeks of the year raises the issue as to why the assessment of the plant never too place. Snyder was operating on the cheap. If the water treatment plant was assessed for it's WORTHINESS to treat the Flint River water it would probably cost a great deal of money to repair. Snyder wasn't interested in spending money, he wanted to sell assets.
Snyder's demands of his Emergency Managers was to end spending by the governing authority regardless the expense and to sell assets to pay down any debt. When the clean water from Lake Huron was stopped and the river water introduced, there was absolutely no preparation for the change except closing the access to one and opening the river water to the pipes of Flint, Michigan.
Snyder demanded a strict discipline of this Emergency Managers with only one focus, pay the debt and don't spend a dime. Snyder's orders to his Emergency Managers were arrogant, racist, grossly negligent and criminal causing the deaths and injuries to many.
18 January 2019
By Tom Perkins
New Democratic leadership (click here) in the investigation into the Flint water crisis has sparked hope among activists that a tougher line will be taken on prosecuting officials and compensating victims of the environmental disaster.
The move comes after three years of Republicans leading the investigation saw 15 state and city officials face criminal charges or be prosecuted over decisions that led to at least 12 deaths, and likely sickened thousands more. At the same time, hundreds of civil lawsuits representing tens of thousands of victims are working their way through state and federal courts.
But critics say there’s been little accountability when Republicans headed the investigation and its targets have been let off lightly. None of the crisis’s perpetrators have paid a fine or served a day in jail for poisoning the city’s water or the subsequent cover-up. Likewise, the state isn’t paying reparations for the deaths or health problems resulting from Flint’s lead-tainted....
