All humans are created equal, or so we thought. Flint Michigan is going through an extreme water crisis where all water is contaminated with lead. Action has not been taken right away and something needs to be done. The Flint water crisis is not really a debate on its own, we all know action needs to be taken. What is controversial is what should be the immediate and long term actions that need to be taken. We all must understand that the water is contaminated with lead due to the pipes corroding. This lead contaminated water has many harmful side effects, one of the worst is lowering I.Q in children (Lead Poisoning). Citizens of Flint as a result have to use bottled water for everything from bathing to cooking, but it does have its limitations. …show more content…
We understand that there was change with this shared experience with Walters “On a chilly evening last March in Flint, Michigan, LeeAnne Walters was getting ready for bed when she heard her daughter shriek from the bathroom” (Lurie). This comes to show an abnormality with the water that must have never been there before. Lead pipes have to meet certain requirements to be used safely “When water chemistry is carefully controlled, it prevents dangerous levels of lead from entering the drinking water system from the pipes.” (Lead in Plumbing). The Flint river water chemistry was not carefully controlled with no anti-corrosion filters and damaged ALL lead pipes during the …show more content…
Some might even think “If I was not even involved in the switch to the Flint river, why am I paying taxes?” But the median house income in Flint is only $23,131, which is over $20,000 under the state average (Flint, Michigan). We have to understand that most citizens of Flint just make it through life with very little extra money. If they were going to heavily tax Flint they may not have enough money to pay for everything else they may need. We need to be empathic and support them in their time of need.
While it is true that residents should have replaced the lead pipes a while ago due to the harmful effects of lead poisoning and it being banned for new construction, citizens of Flint knew no better. The water entering their houses was completely fine until the switch to the corrosive Flint river in which corroded their lead pipes finally leading to lead leaching into their water. This goes along if the saying if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. And in this case many citizens can not afford to replace the pipes.
We need to use money from Michigan’s rainy day fund of $498 million dollars to at least help cover some of the cost of their mistake. Otherwise we are going to let hundreds of thousands of ordinary people
In the article, “How Tap Water Became Toxic in Flint, Michigan,” the authors from CNN, Sara Ganim and Linh Tran, discussed about how Flint’s water became toxic after the state decided to switch their water supply source due to financial issues. The state switched their water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Moreover, after the switch, many residents began to notice a change in their water. For example, one of the residents expressed, “the water started to look, smell and taste funny..it often looked dirty..the water would come in brown..”(Ganim and Tran).
Leonard Pitts Jr. wrote an article about Flint, Michigan’s lead water out break. Complaining about hair loss (even in pets), nausea, and rashes. This happened in April and now in January it is becoming a big deal stated in the article. Flint switched their water supply to Flint River because it was cheaper. The river is filled with bacteria and chemicals. Leonard talks about doctors that are finding lead in little kids blood and that can lead to a lot of damages including brain damage, anti social behavior, and more. The city is very poor and this problem could have been taken care of if they just paid an extra 100$
The article, “Lead Levels Remain High in Flint’s Water” by Matt Davenport explores the increased lead contamination in the Flint, Michigan water source. In April of 2014, high levels of bacteria, and fecal matter were detected in the water of Flint, Michigan. While the levels of bacteria decreased, the city’s water still breaks the federal rule for lead levels. A series of tests conducted by Marc A. Edwards was able to show that the city’s contaminated water was corroding pipes, which leached lead into the water. Because Edwards was able to inform the public about the contaminated water source, Michigan officials have taken steps to improve Flint’s water quality. For example, the water-pipes were re-routed to carry water from Detroit instead
In her article, Flint Water Crisis, Dr. Mona Hann-Attisha, discusses the occurrence about highly elevated, possibly but not yet actually harmful levels of lead in the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, received national attention. She describes Flint, Michigan, was once a postindustrial home to flourishing automotive plants; the water crisis has been described as an example of government wrongdoing and disrepair by some and of a lack of omission by federal environmental regulators by others. She points to the tendency prior to a series of tests by independent researchers at Virginia Tech in October 2015, many residents found that their unease about the water’s taste, odor, and smell were being disregard intentionally by city and state officials,
The inaccessibility of clean water has burdened Flint Michigan in recent years; however it is not algal bloom or overflowing sewers that has contaminated local water sources, rather it is highly corrosive water that destroyed old lead pipes. Flint, Michigan is located a little over an hour north of the lively city of Detroit. Flint’s population totals around 100,000 citizens. This city has attracted nationwide attention, in the last few years, as economic despair and widespread water contamination continues to burden the suburb to this day. Economic tension in Flint surfaced in 2011, when the state’s auditing determined that Flint was buried by economic ruin: precisely a $25 million deficit. As a result, in April of 2015, the water supply
The city of Flint is 70 miles away from the costs of the Great Lakes which hold the greatest sources of fresh water, yet there residents still can't get clean tap water. 15% of homes in Flint Michigan are boarded up ,40% of the people are in poverty , high unemployment rate, and consistently on a list for most dangerous places to live in the nation .In an attempt to cut budget cost in 2014 Flint stop getting pre treated water from the city of Detroit . Problems began when the city started using water from the Flint river .Flint River is 19 times more corrosive than Lake Huron (Detroit water source) . City and state officials denied for months that there was a serious problem by that time, supply pipes had sustained major corrosion and lead
In Flint Michigan studies show there was a large amount of lead in the water , because of this high turbidity in the water witch means this water is dangerous.
“The scale of government neglect in the water crisis in Flint, Michigan , could place the city along some of most infamous environmental disasters in U.S. history”-Lenny Bernstein.
Many service lines leading into homes are leaching lead into the water. This problem happened because the city of Flint decided to not treat the water properly with corrosion control (Ganrin, 2016). This proves that officials did not care about those living in Flint. They chose to save money but instead they destroyed many lives. So this proves that our government is not there to help the people out, but instead to cut money wherever they feel necessary to not have to take it from other places. Lead poisoning can affect IQ and behavior. This can cause some people to become score low on standardized test and to become violent and to sometimes harm others. No level of lead is ever safe in any person or animal (Ganrin, 2016). The water source in Flint is currently undrinkable and very unsafe and will continue to be for months ahead ("Researcher: Flint water 'like Russian roulette'," 2016). Flint water is not a safe water source and has not been for many months. According to federal regulations Flint's water supply still does not meet standards. Since August 2015 the water supply has improved, but it still is not safe ("Researcher: Flint water 'like Russian roulette'," 2016). The people of Flint have been poisoned under their noses without even knowing it, secretly being sickened by their own government. Flint’s water is not safe it's an unreliable water
In April of 2014 Flint, Michigan started to get their water from the Flint River rather than the Detroit river that was formerly used as the main water source in hopes of saving money. The water being provided has been classified by Flint residents as smelly and murky and is avoided at all costs. It has also been discovered to cause damage to the lead pipes that transported it throughout the city. Children have been found to have high levels of lead in their blood and this may be the cause of an outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease which has killed 10 people in the Flint area. People have also reported rashes from the dirty water. Video news interviews show residents holding water that is
Chemistry is a branch of science that deals various compositions of matter which involves investigating properties that affect us directly, including our environment and our way of life. One of such issues is the public water contamination of Flint, Michigan. The state experienced a water crisis for almost two years continuously, which highly devastated the town since its main water source had been contaminated. There were increasing levels of lead in the city’s drinking water (Broadsidedpress.org). The issue started in 2014 when the city of Flint changed its source of water from their original source, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, where they received treated water, to the Flint River. Drinking water from Flint River had a series of problems, including lead and bacterial contamination, which led to serious health issues (Dixon). Flint River water was corrosive thus it caused lead from old pipes leach into the water supply and this caused very high levels of metal neurotoxins in the water. So many children have been exposed to the contaminated water leading to a series of health issues. The children have elevated blood-lead levels and the number increased drastically from 2014 to 2015 (Dixon). The change in the water source also led to Legionnaire’s disease breakdown that killed more than ten people while affecting another 77 in 2015. Due to this issue, many people and organizations stepped in to aid the city of Flint by providing them with bottled
Between the costs of infrastructure repairs and medical assistance to those affected, the State of Michigan has a great financial burden that they are responsible for. Hundreds
The lead effects in the drinking water have caused a massive public health crisis (“Scientific Opinion on the risks”, 2015). The whole crisis was as a result of poor management practices employed in the Flint water plant. The city decided to switch the
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Who knew that Flints water could be deadly? Everyone should be allowed to have the same clean water to bathe in, drink, cook with, and to have fun in. Unfortunately, residents in Flint could not do this for quite some time. These residents were bathing and drinking from this water before the founding of high lead levels in it. Not only was it because of the high lead levels, but the pipes were very old as well. Due to actions made by the city council this caused a lot of problems for the residents in the city of Flint. This effected children, pregnant women, and the elderly the most. Many lawsuits were filed against the city of Flint. It was so serious to the point that Governor Snyder had to declare a state of emergency. This took place January 5th of 2016. High levels of lead in the water and old pipes lead to lawsuits, the sickness of Flint residents, and the city of Flint not doing their job.