I am away from home but will post about Flint when I return in the early AM.

3/27/2021

1:35 pm

Sorry for the tardiness. All I can say in my own defense is that it is springtime.

Let's take a look at Flint.

To begin, President Biden brought Flint up in the first news conference he shared with the American people. The reason he did was because of the large number of lead pipes still in homes all across the country. I want to qualify that because it is not the same as Flint.

President Biden is correct to be worried about the country and the lead service lines to homes and children across the USA. The best reason is that we cannot leave it to chance that lead won't come out of the pipes and into the water. Drinking water standards and water quality were never a high priority for the previous president (who's name I shall not mention).

By consequence of the highly destructive previous federal administrtion, there can easily be caustics in the nation's drinking water. The standards for the water are only a part of water quality. The contribution of overland flow and water runoff also plays a role in water quality. So, in environmental justice, if there is a coal plant throwing soot into the air, that shoot will fall to the ground and also causes acid rain. The leaching and overland flow are just as deadly as the lead pipes.

Whenever any sort of toxin enters drinking water and a water treatment plant ends that contaminant, there is a cost to pay for that water treatment. Now, in the case of the water Flint, Michigan used to receive in their pipes, it was glacial water and at the time relatively pure. But, if that glacial water is contaminated in the most minor amount with a caustic substance, then it needs to be treated. But, what often happens is the STANDARD for that toxin can be changed to allow higher amounts of the substance to pass into American diets.

What does that mean? It means the previous administration cut the cost of water treatment at the cost of American health and ultimately illness and longevity. It is this unthinkable reality that is upon us today. After the previous administration, which thought nothing of citizen deaths and even welcomed them, was finished reducing the cost of water treatment, there are dangerous substances in our country's water and it is most probably having an effect on the degree of lead in the homes of those with leaching lead pipes.

The country needs to take stock of the changes the previous administration made into reducing costs to water treatment while allowing higher contaminants in that water. The idea contaminants were increased by the previous standard will effect the entire country whether they have lead service pipes or not.

But, it is notable that President Biden called up the episode of Flint, Michigan in expressing concern for the entire country. The tragedy that resulted in Flint, Michigan under the direction of a ruthless governor not different from the previous president in valuing American lives, has made an impression on the people to the degree their lives can be changed by ruthless standards that feed greed. There is a deep appreciation of the tragedy that occurred in Flint, Michigan. All I can say is this appreciation for what can occur under wayward leadership is the credit of all the whistleblowers. Flint, Michigan has a proud history of standing up for itself when no one else was successful. That is being an American. We are grateful to them and am sincerely sorry for the loss that took a year to surface after the tragedy.