Friday night is when Justice Ginsberg died. As a result, I put this off until this evening. There is a finding by a graduate student of the Virginia Tech Professor Marc Edwards. There are many things to discuss and I do not consider this a conclusively better outcome than originally thought.
Just as an interesting fact, Synder was elected with the angry Republican wave of 2010. I am curious about what really caused the 2011 spike in lead. I think it needs to be realized whether it has anything to do with Snyder's administration, too.
September 17, 2020
By Siddhartha Roy and Marc Edwards
Sometime in 2021 (click here) a much-anticipated era of lead-free pipes will begin in Flint, Michigan. Contractors have replaced more than 90 percent of the city’s pure lead and galvanized-iron pipes connecting homes to the water mains, and they are hard at work inspecting and replacing the roughly 2,500 that remain. Flint will likely become only the third major American city — after Lansing, Michigan and Madison, Wisconsin — to have replaced all its lead pipes. They are also the first to replace all the galvanized iron connections, another source of lead, and to pay for all the work without charging customers. Blood testing and residential water testing suggest that the lead levels in Flint water are now at historic lows.
The improvements mark an end to Flint’s disastrous history with lead pipes, which resurfaced in April 2014 when the city switched the source of its public water from Lake Huron treated by the city of Detroit to the Flint River, while discontinuing the use of corrosion control chemicals. The switch triggered an alarming rise in lead levels in the city’s drinking water, a corresponding spike in children’s blood lead levels, and a national scandal that led the city to switch back to water from Detroit in October 2015 while more than tripling the corrosion control dose. Ultimately, after revelations of deaths from two outbreaks of Legionnaire’s disease caused by the initial switch, a federal emergency was declared by President Obama in January 2016....
Now, the Flint children born in and around the time in 2011 would have been effected if their mothers were drinking the water, either through breastfeeding or pregnancy or reconstitution of formula. The children born after this incident should not have been effected by it until Snyder demanded the city of Flint no longer receive water from Detroit, but, from the Flint River.
The Flint Water Crisis would have added to the problem of the children born in 2011 or before. Any child in Flint at the 2011 spike would be effected, but, the 2014 poisoning would have contributed to more of a problem they already had.
Now, as to whether the poisoning is less than first thought is an entirely different issue. While this shows lead levels it does not reflect the entire amount of lead that effected the children of Flint in 2014. This shows the lead that was eliminated from the body, it does not show the lead in the child's body that stayed there. The records of the pediatrician that measured blood levels have the correct information as to what was being maintained in the child's body at the time.
This is a measure of lead in the effluent and at the sewage treatment plant. The lead in the children's body is still there. It was never eliminated. This is a partial measurement of the lead in the Flint water, not the entire picture.
Also, the effluent is in a different pipe system than potable water. The chemicals of defecation can cause effluent pipes to release their lead if they are lead pipes. The human stomach is acidic with a pH of between 1.5 and 3.5. That is what assists in the digestion of food. So, because the effluent pipes to the waste treatment plant show lead at a higher level than anticipated in potable water, it is because the digestive tract of a human being is acidic.
While this information by Professor Marc Edwards' graduate student is interesting it is not the entire picture. What also plays into lead levels in the effluent is the number of people living in Flint. As the city population increased or decreased the lead level would fluctuate as well.
May I suggest this study needs to be followed up by the same graduate student if he or she is interested to determine the spike in the time of 2011. Did something happen in Flint at that time at the sewage treatment plant? Or. Was there something that occurred that actually made it into the diets of the people of Flint? If Virginia Tech is not pursuing the results published by a graduate student, then perhaps a U of M grad student could be provided a grant to continue to follow the results and definitively state what the problem was in 2011 that caused this result.
With all that said, as I stated before, this is an interesting study, validates the poisoning of 2014 and also raises concern about what the spike was in 2011.
Other people may be interested in the records held by their city in relation to any amount of lead in the water and its source.
It was a good investigation of Flint. It definitely shows a declining amount of lead from the pipes as they are being removed and replaced.
With that, I will say good night for tonight. Thank you for your interest.
September 18, 2020
By Ron Fonger
Flint - The city says (click here) it will continue to accept consent forms that allow contractors to excavate their water service lines but says time is running out to request the free work to be done.
“I urge all residents: Please immediately consent to having your service lines checked and replaced,” Mayor Sheldon Neeley said in a statement issued by the city Friday, Sept. 18. “We still have crews in the field replacing pipes, so we can still accept consent forms -- but this needs to be done now. This is urgent.
Last month, the city said it was making a final push to dig up the service lines at up to 2,500 homes from which no one had given permission for the work to be done.
In a news release Friday, the city said it’s uncertain how many more days it will be able to continue accepting consent forms. Friday, Sept. 18, was the official deadline to file required paperwork, according to an agreement between the city and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
In that agreement, Flint officials committed to complete all service line work, including property restoration by Nov. 30.
To opt-in to the replacement program, residents can visit City Hall, call 810-410-1133, email GetTheLeadOut@cityofflint.com, make a request online at CityofFlint.com/GetTheLeadOut, or mail to Flint City Hall DPW Service line replacement program 1101 S. Saginaw St. Flint, MI 48502....
