Flint Water Crisis Timeline

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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby Iamwhomiam » Sat Jan 30, 2016 1:01 am

Hoosick Falls is now a Superfund site.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby divideandconquer » Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:28 pm

6 Cities in Michigan Have Even Higher Levels of Lead than Flint

As the nation rightly focuses on Flint’s ongoing water crisis, other cities in the state of Michigan face even higher levels of lead contamination. The alarming pervasiveness of potentially toxic drinking water extends across the United States.

The Detroit News reports that “Elevated blood-lead levels are seen in a higher percentage of children in parts of Grand Rapids, Jackson, Detroit, Saginaw, Muskegon, Holland and several other cities, proof that the scourge of lead has not been eradicated despite decades of public health campaigns and hundreds of millions of dollars spent to find and eliminate it.”

Of over 7,000 children tested in the Highland Park and Hamtramck areas of Detroit in 2014, 13.5 percent tested positive for lead. Among four zip codes in Grand Rapids, one in ten children had lead in their blood. In Adrian and south-central Michigan, more than 12 percent of 640 children tested had positive results.

These overall numbers are higher than Flint’s, where Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha found lead in up to 6.3 percent of children in the highest-risk areas; while The Guardian reported Dr. Hanna-Attisha has also said the rate is as high at 15 percent in certain “hot spots,” the size of those samples was not listed. Even so, the overall figures across Michigan are lower than in previous years. In 2012, children tested across Michigan had lead in their blood at a rate of 4.5 percent, about five times less than the rate ten years prior, which reached an alarming 25 percent. In spite of the decrease in recent years, however, thousands of children in Michigan are still affected.

“In 2013, that level sank to 3.9 percent and fell again to 3.5 percent in 2014. But that is still 5,053 children under age 6 who tested positive in 2014,” the Detroit News explained. “Each had lead levels above 5 micrograms per deciliter. (Though no amount is considered safe, 5 micrograms is the threshold that experts say constitutes a ‘much higher’ level than most children.)” One Detroit zip code had a rate of 20.8 percent of children who tested positive in 2014, and 20.3 percent the following year.

The outrage in Flint is especially warranted because of the pronounced effects of lead on children. Lead, a known toxin, is associated with both physical and mental ailments, and according to one Detroit teacher, has harmed the cognitive abilities of students.

Kieya Morrison, a veteran kindergarten teacher, who now teaches preschool, described a recent student known to have elevated levels of blood in her system. The girl experienced difficulties grasping simple cognitive tasks, like differentiating between a triangle and a square. “She had cognitive problems. She had trouble processing things,” Morrison said. “She could not retain any of the information.” The University of Michigan recently found a link between lead in children and lower academic test scores.

Michigan’s lead problem “…is still an issue. It’s not going away,” said Dr. Eden Wells, chief medical executive of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

In fact, lead levels are elevated across the United States. Anti-Media reported this week on Sebring, Ohio, where a similar lead crisis spawned official cover-ups. For years, discoveries of lead in public water supplies have made headlines, even if these finding were not national news. In 2008, the Los Angeles school district’s water supply was found to have levels of lead hundreds of times higher than the allowable. In 2015, officials could not guarantee they had adequately purified the water. In another example, in 2010, New York City tested 222 older homes known to have lead pipes, and found 14 percent had lead levels higher than the allowable limit.

Vox noted that in 2014, “Nine counties nationwide told the CDC that 10 percent or more of their lead poisoning tests came back positive. Four of them are in Louisiana, two in Alabama, and the rest scattered across West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Oklahoma.”

The problem extends beyond anecdotal cases or any specific region. As Huffington Post reports, millions of lead pipes — like the ones that contaminated the water in Flint — are still in service across the United States:

“There are roughly 7.3 million lead service lines in the U.S., according to an estimate by the Environmental Protection Agency, down from 10.5 million in 1988. Service lines are the pipes connecting water mains to people’s houses. They’re mostly found in the Midwest and Northeast.”


Jerry Paulson, emeritus professor of pediatrics and environmental health at George Washington University, told the Detroit News how common the problem is:

“This is a situation that has the potential to occur in however many places around the country there are lead pipes,“ he explained. “Unless and until those pipes are removed, those communities are at some degree of risk.”


Paul Haan of the Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan, an organization that works to eliminate household hazards to improve children’s health, warns that the levels of lead in Michigan children’s blood continue to rise, citing weekly statewide reports from pediatricians. In spite of his efforts to help reduce contaminants, he pointed out a dismal flaw in the process:

“The problem is,” he said, “we’re still using kids as lead detectors.”
'I see clearly that man in this world deceives himself by admiring and esteeming things which are not, and neither sees nor esteems the things which are.' — St. Catherine of Genoa
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Jan 31, 2016 8:39 pm

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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Feb 02, 2016 10:19 am

World | Tue Feb 2, 2016 8:37am EST Related: U.S., ENVIRONMENT
FBI joins Flint, Michigan water contamination probe
WASHINGTON | BY DAVID SHEPARDSON

A Flint River sign is seen along the Flint river in Flint, Michigan in this December 16, 2015 file photo.
REUTERS/REBECCA COOK/FILES

The FBI is joining a U.S. criminal investigation into Flint, Michigan's water contamination crisis, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit said on Tuesday.

Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit, said in an email that federal prosecutors in Michigan are "working with a multi-agency investigation team on the Flint water contamination matter, including the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the EPA's Office of Inspector General ... and the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division."

The city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched its source of tap water from Detroit's system to the Flint River in April 2014.

The more corrosive water from the river leached more lead from the city pipes than Detroit water did.

Dave Murray, a spokesman for Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, said the office "will cooperate fully with any authorities looking at what happened in Flint with the water. It’s important to look at missteps at all three levels of government – local, state and federal – so such a crisis doesn’t occur again."

Snyder has repeatedly apologized for the state's poor handling of the matter.

Last week, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette named a special prosecutor and investigator to look into possible crimes stemming from the matter.

The U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing on the Flint crisis on Wednesday and has invited the Environmental Protection Agency's acting deputy assistant administrator in its Office of Water to testify, along with an EPA researcher who raised concerns early about lead in the water.

Also testifying is Keith Creagh, the new director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The previous director resigned in December in the wake of a critical report about the water.

Also testifying is Darnell Early, the former Flint emergency manager. The Detroit Free Press reported he may decline to testify.

The EPA said in January that Susan Hedman, the head of its Midwest region was resigning, effective Feb. 1, over the water contamination crisis in Flint.

Hedman had played down a memo by an EPA employee that said tests showed high levels of lead in the city's water, telling Flint and Michigan administrators it was only a draft report.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Feb 02, 2016 3:54 pm

The Emergency Manager Who Used to Oversee Flint, Michigan, Just Resigned From Detroit’s Struggling Public Schools

By Laura Moser

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said that DPS emergency manager Darnell Earley, who resigned on Tuesday,"has done a very good job under some very difficult circumstances."
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Darnell Earley resigned Tuesday as the emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools, effective Feb. 29.

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder brought Earley in a year ago to restructure Detroit’s long-embattled school system, which has debts estimated to be in the $3.5 billion range. To judge by his statement of resignation, Earley is leaving his $225,000-a-year post early not because the work was too daunting—but because he did such a fantastic job that he can now rest on his laurels:

When I was appointed to this position, Gov. Snyder and I agreed that our goal was for me to be the last emergency manager appointed to DPS. I have completed the comprehensive restructuring, necessary to downsizing the central office, and the development of a network structure that empowers the educational leadership of our schools to direct more resources toward classroom instruction. This and other initiatives implemented over the past year were completed ahead of my 18-month schedule.
Mission accomplished, really?

Over the past several months, Detroit teachers, who are barred by Michigan law from striking, have staged more and more “sickouts” to protest their frozen wages and the disgusting conditions of their schools, which one teacher detailed in the Washington Post: water damage everywhere, destroyed gyms and playgrounds, “exposed wires … from missing ceiling tiles,” a “dripping ceiling … covered with toxic black mold.” (One school reported that “debris str[uck] a student in the head during testing.”) In some schools, there’s no heating; in others, indoor temperatures reach a suffocating 90 degrees. Oh, and let’s not forget to add rats and roaches to the list of grotesque environmental hazards blighting schools throughout the city.

Last week, the Detroit Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit demanding that a judge remove Earley as emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools. “We are charging that the DPS and Darnell Earley have let the fiscal situation and the environmental conditions of the schools to deteriorate so severely that Detroit is not providing a minimally sufficient education,” American Federation of Teachers representative Ann Mitchell said at a press conference.

If the Detroit mess weren't sufficiently dire, Earley is also dogged by Flint, where he was previously emergency manager. While the calamitous decision to leave the Detroit water system predated his tenure, Earley was in charge of Flint when the city made the switch from Lake Huron to the contaminated Flint River for the city’s water source.

The night before his resignation from DPS, Earley declined to testify before a congressional oversight committee on the Flint water crisis. The committee invited him and several other officials; so far, Earley has been the only one to refuse.


Former Flint EM Darnell Earley refuses to testify before Congress


Jake May | jmay2@mlive.com
on February 02, 2016 at 12:46 PM

FLINT, MI -- Former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley is refusing to testify on the city's water crisis during a Congressional hearing Wednesday, Feb. 3, and Democrats are pushing Gov. Rick Snyder to direct him otherwise.

Earley, who is leaving his position as Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Feb. 29, has told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he will not testify about how the Flint water crisis unfolded even though he has been invited as one of five witnesses, Congressional sources said.

U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., issued a statement Tuesday, Feb. 2, saying Earley's refusal to testify hurts the committee's search for answers about how Flint's water crisis was allowed to happen.

Democrats, who make up a minority of the committee, have already complained that Snyder himself was not called to testify.

"At Wednesday's hearing, we won't hear from the governor, any of the emergency managers he appointed in Flint, or anyone else from the state who was involved in making decisions that led to this crisis," Cummings statement says.

"In our search for the truth, we must hear from everyone involved to understand what happened. Having such a one-sided hearing undermines the credibility of the committee and subjects the committee to accusations of partisanship. No matter who is responsible, the people of Flint deserve a comprehensive investigation that gets them answers -- not a partisan effort to protect the governor and others who brought about this crisis."

The Flint Journal-MLive could not immediately reach Earley or a representative for U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the oversight committee, for comment.

Snyder Press Secretary Dave Murray said in an email that he's "not aware of Mr. Earley's plans."

"Keith Creagh, director of the Department of Environmental Quality, plans to speak before the committee this week, talking about challenges faced in Flint and what the department is doing moving forward to protect the health and safety of residents. That's our focus now," Murray's statement says.

In addition to Cummings' statement, the Michigan Democratic Party released a statement Tuesday, calling on Snyder to "demand" Earley's testimony before Congress, and State Sen. Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, said the former emergency manager shouldn't be able to "dodge his responsibility to fully comply with every investigation about his role in the Flint water crisis."

"The governor must demand that he testify before Congress tomorrow and be completely transparent in turning over every document related to what happened," Ananich said.

In addition to Earley, the committee witness list includes U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representatives, Virginia Tech university professor Marc Edwards and Creagh.

U.S. Rep Dan Kildee, D-Flint Twp., is also scheduled to give remarks to the committee.

Earley may not want to testify, but he has stated his opinion on responsibility for the Flint lead in water crisis in the past.

Flint's emergency manager from September 2013 until January 2015 said in an email to The Flint Journal-MLive in October that the decision to use the Flint River as the city's water source in April 2014 was made months before Snyder appointed him to run the city.

"The decision to separate from (the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department) and go with the Karegnondi Water Authority, including the decision to pump Flint River water in the interim, were both a part of a long-term plan that was approved by Flint's mayor, and confirmed by a City Council vote of 7-1 in March of 2013 -- a full seven months before I began my term as emergency manager," Earley's email says.

Members of the council, the mayor and others have taken issue with that history because both the council and the mayor had been stripped of their authority after the governor declared a financial emergency here and appointed four different emergency managers to run the city.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Feb 03, 2016 1:08 am

Attorney Geoffrey Fieger seeks $100 million in Flint Legionnaires' lawsuit


Image

Flint resident Tim Monahan refuses a piggyback ride from his niece Chadie Adler, 9, before she goes to bed as he wouldn't be strong enough to lift her on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016 in Flint. Chadie has lived with her uncles Tim and Bill Griffin, his partner, for five years since her mother died after more than one year battling Ewing's Sarcoma, a form of cancer. Tim Monahan was diagnosed with Legionella pneumonia in July 2014, one of 45 cases reported in Genesee County during a 10-month period from June 2014 to March 2015 -- including 27 cases in Flint -- that included seven deaths, according to a report from the state. Three other deaths from the disease, as part of 42 additional cases in Genesee County, took place between May 2015 to November 2015. "I'm not alone in this. There's a whole bunch of us that are like could we go somewhere if we could, would we do something different? I don't know. I like the city of Flint and I love the people that live here," he said. "There are so many great people that are standing up and working on making this a better city, there really are. We're excited in that, but at the same time, you can't drink the water." Jake May | MLive.com

on February 02, 2016 at 3:22 PM, updated February 02, 2016 at 4:07 PM

FLINT, MI – Attorney Geoffrey Fieger says he has filed a lawsuit seeking $100 million after a Legionnaires' disease outbreak in the Flint area.

Fieger filed the lawsuit Monday, Feb. 1, in Genesee Circuit Court against McLaren-Flint on behalf of 58-year-old Debra Kidd. Kidd died from Legionella pneumonia on Aug. 2, 2015, seven days after she arrived at the hospital's emergency room with a headache.

The lawsuit claims McLaren, which used Flint city water, knew its water supply was contaminated with the Legionella bacteria in April 2014. Over the next 17 months, multiple McLaren patients developed Legionnaires' disease.

McLaren officials confirmed to The Flint Journal in January that Legionella bacteria was found in the hospital's water supply at their Flint location after the city switched from Detroit to the Flint River as their water source in 2014.

Gov. Rick Snyder and state Health and Human Services Department officials said Wednesday, Jan. 13, that the Flint area experienced a spike in Legionnaires' beginning in summer 2014.

Initially, state officials reported that 10 people had died from the outbreak, but that number was changed to nine in the newest study from the state. More than 70 were sickened in the outbreak.

The outbreak began shortly after Flint stopped using treated water from Detroit and began using the Flint River as the source of its drinking water, a change made by a Snyder-appointed emergency manager.

State health officials investigated a possible link between the city's water supply and the outbreak, but the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued a report Jan. 21 saying the state investigators were unable to "determine a conclusive environmental source" of a Legionnaires Disease outbreak in the Flint area.

However, Fieger claims the water change played a role in the outbreak.

"The more I read and learn about this, the angrier I get," Fieger said. "To save a few dollars, the Snyder Administration poisoned an entire city and thought they could get away with it because those poisoned were poor, and primarily black."

McLaren spokeswoman Laurie Prochazka said the hospital has not yet seen the lawsuit and declined comment.

"It wouldn't be appropriate to discuss the litigation," Snyder's Press Secretary Dave Murray said. "But with regard to Mr. Feiger's comments, Gov. Snyder takes the well-being of all of Michigan residents very seriously, and Flint residents are not an exception to that."

No response has been filed in the case.


"A hospital won't make money if it discloses a Legionnaires' outbreak from contaminated water, and a Governor will stop hearing whispers that he's being considered for higher office if he reveals a water and Legionnaires' crisis," Fieger said in a statement.

2:18 pm ET
May 5, 2015
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Sees Opening in GOP Presidential Field

By JOHN STOLL

Rick Snyder, governor of Michigan, attends the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., on April 27. Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg News
DETROIT – Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said Tuesday that he sees an opening for a presidential candidate with his track record, though it likely will be weeks until he announces whether he’ll join the race for the GOP nomination.

In an interview on the sidelines of a job conference here, Mr. Snyder said while he is focused on “telling the Michigan story,” he is “watching who is in the candidate race, because we need a problem-solver in Washington.”

When asked if a candidate had yet emerged that he would say fits that job description, Mr. Snyder said: “I haven’t seen one that I would define as a problem-solver.”

He said he was “watching the process, and I think you’ll find most of the candidates coming out by the June-July time-frame.”

A former president of Gateway Inc. and ex-venture capitalist, Mr. Snyder criticized the pace of action in Washington. Speaking of his proposal to attract more well-educated immigrants to Detroit to speed Motown’s recovery without extensive spending, he said the federal government is dragging its feet.

“If we were doing it in the state, it would go fast,’’ he asid. “But we’re working with Washington, so the pace is significantly slower.”

Mr. Snyder, a two-term governor, said, “I don’t think the traditional model of sending another politician to Washington is the best answer, because there is a broken culture there and a broken government.”

He said he was immediately focused on a referendum in front of voters Tuesday that aims to raise $1.2 billion to fix roads via a sales-tax increase. Mr. Snyder said he will consider alternative action if the proposal is defeated at the polls.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 04, 2016 3:44 pm

APNewsBreak: Officials Warned of Water, Legionnaires' Link
By DAVID EGGERT AND ED WHITE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
LANSING, Mich. — Feb 4, 2016, 2:15 PM ET

High-ranking officials in Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's administration were aware of a surge in Legionnaires' disease potentially linked to Flint's water long before the governor reported the increase to the public last month, internal emails show.

When he disclosed the spike in Legionnaires' cases on Jan. 13, Snyder said he had learned about it just a couple of days earlier. But emails obtained by the liberal group Progress Michigan through public-records requests and shared with The Associated Press show Snyder's own office was aware of the outbreak since last March. At the time, others in the administration were scrambling to respond to suggestions that bacteria in the city's new water source, the Flint River, could be the culprit.

The outbreak was also well known within state agencies, according to emails obtained separately by the AP and other news organizations. Together, the emails offer more evidence that some state officials were dismissive of county health authorities who raised concerns about the safety of the community's drinking water.

"The increase of the illnesses closely corresponds with the timeframe of the switch to the Flint River water. The majority of the cases reside or have an association with the city," Jim Henry, Genesee County's environmental health supervisor, wrote March 10 to Flint leaders, the city's state-appointed emergency financial manager and the state Department of Environmental Quality, known as the DEQ.

"This situation has been explicitly explained to MDEQ and many of the city's officials," Henry said in the email that was forwarded by the DEQ to a Snyder aide three days later. "I want to make sure in writing that there are no misunderstandings regarding this significant and urgent public health issue."

Legionnaires' disease is a pneumonia caused by bacteria in the lungs. People get sick if they inhale mist or vapor from contaminated water systems, hot tubs or cooling systems.

There were at least 87 cases across Genesee County during a 17-month period, including nine deaths, but the public was never told about the increase when it was happening — even after an initial wave of more than 40 cases was known by early 2015.

The back and forth behind the scenes occurred while residents were complaining about poor water quality, even before lead contamination became an extraordinary health emergency roughly six months later.

The emails reveal tension between the county health department, which was on the front line of the Legionnaires' outbreak, and the city and state about how to investigate the disease. The emails also show some angst in the Snyder administration over the controversy.

Brad Wurfel, who was DEQ spokesman at the time, informed Snyder's director of urban initiatives, Harvey Hollins, about a "significant uptick" in Legionnaires' cases but said it was "beyond irresponsible" for Henry to link the disease to the river without an adequate investigation. He copied then-DEQ director Dan Wyant on the email.

Wurfel noted that the county had re-submitted an open-records request to the city for water testing results and other information because of what Henry called the city's "lack of cooperation."

Wurfel said it would be "highly unlikely" to find Legionella bacteria around the water treatment plant. However, he acknowledged the accusation about a link to the river was "serious" and said all agencies should come together "asap to share what information we have and develop a response/screening strategy before the weather gets warm again."

Both Wyant and Wurfel resigned on Dec. 29.

Snyder spokesman Dave Murray, citing the large executive office staff, said this week that the Republican governor only learned about the Legionnaires' outbreak days before he publicly disclosed it — despite Hollins being flagged 10 months earlier. Snyder's former chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore, has said neither he nor Snyder knew but they should have been told earlier.

"Important information flow isn't always forthcoming," he said in mid-January on WKAR-TV's "Off The Record" show.

Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan, said the emails expose "another glaring example of Gov. Snyder saying one thing and emails really revealing something different." The group, which has asked Snyder to release staff emails that are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, is still reviewing thousands of pages of state emails related to Flint's water.

On March 12, Stephen Busch, a DEQ district supervisor, wrote back to Henry and challenged his assertion that the DEQ had declined to meet since being initially informed in October 2014 about a rise in Legionnaires' cases. Busch said the department never was asked for a meeting, but he agreed a multi-agency partnership would be beneficial moving forward.

"Conclusions that legionella is coming from the public water system without the presentation of any substantiating evidence from your epidemiologic investigation appears premature and prejudice (sic) toward that end," Busch wrote.

Janet Stout is a Pittsburgh microbiologist and expert on Legionnaires' disease who has researched links between Legionella bacteria and public water supplies. She believes the Flint River caused an increase in Genesee County Legionnaires' cases.

"The county was alerting and alarmed and seeking cooperation and help from outside agencies," Stout told the AP. "What I read tells me they did not get much help for various reasons."

The state Department of Health and Human Services had already begun assisting the county in the fall of 2014, and the Legionnaires' investigation had become "very intensive" in early 2015, said Dr. Eden Wells, Michigan's chief medical executive.

Because Legionnaries' disease is not transferred person to person, efforts to fight it are focused on determining sources of infection and notifying doctors so they have the option of doing a special test, Wells said.

About half of the cases had an "association" with a Flint hospital in the two weeks prior to their illness, Wells said. McLaren Hospital spent more than $300,000 on a water treatment system, banned showers and also turned to bottled water for patients.

The state said it cannot conclude that the Legionnaires' surge is related to the water switch, nor can it rule it out, in part because of too few case specimens from patients.

The first wave of 45 cases was commonly known within the state health department, Wells said, but the agency did not take the information to the governor until confirming a second wave of 42 cases and analyzing them together.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 04, 2016 3:52 pm

Flint Inmates Lied To About Water Crisis, Forced To Drink Lead Water
BY CARIMAH TOWNES FEB 4, 2016 11:34 AM


Back in October, the Genesee County Health Department declared a public health emergency, telling the residents of Flint, Michigan to stop drinking the city’s tap water due to dangerously high levels of lead. Two months later, the mayor of Flint declared a state of emergency, saying the city’s pipes were still leaching lead. The National Guard ramped up the distribution of bottled water to residents in January, one year after state officials received bottles.
But while Flint residents scrambled to get bottled water and filters, one group was kept in the dark about the risks posed by the tap water: inmates doing time in Genesee County Jail. According to an exclusive report from Democracy Now!, the facility lied to inmates about the water quality and forced them to drink and bathe in the water. Inmates, including pregnant women, also ate food cooked with the tainted water.
When the jail finally started passing out the water bottles on January 23, Jody Cramer was one of the inmates charged with distributing them. After his release this week, Cramer told Democracy Now! that men and women received just two 12-ounce bottles of water, two times a day.
The Institute of Medicine recommends that men and women drink 100 and 73 ounces of water, respectively, every single day.
“Prior to this, they had already started handing out bottles of water, when this first broke in October. And then they stopped, saying that their water was good,” Cramer said. “We’ve been told that there’s nothing wrong with washing your body or hands with this water.”
While inmates consumed and touched the water, jail staff avoided it altogether.
“Many inmates made complaints, due to the fact that the deputies would not drink from the faucets. They all carried bottled water,” Cramer said. When he alerted his mother about what was happening, she visited the facility to find answers. A deputy told her that the jail had a filtration process in place.
Cramer also told Democracy Now! that multiple inmates landed behind bars because they were tricked by deputies who came to their homes under the guise of passing out water filtration systems. When people opened the door, the deputies would ask them to confirm their names and serve warrants to the people on the spot.
“Here’s your water filtration system. By the way, you have a warrant for your arrest,” Cramer said.
News of the inmates’ treatment comes amid growing concerns about the future of Flint’s juvenile justice system. Mayor Karen Weaver pointed out the severe implications of lead poisoning, saying, “damage to children is irreversible and can cause effects to a child’s IQ, which will result in learning disabilities… and an increase in the juvenile justice system.” In a city with heavily-policed schools and a robust school-to-prison pipeline, children with behavioral disorders and mental retardation caused by lead poisoning could face harsh discipline in the future. And trauma from the crisis could manifest in delinquent behavior that lands them in the system.
Flint isn’t the first city to ignore its inmates. After a catastrophic chemical spill in West Virginia in 2014, prisoners in Charleston were forgotten during the state of emergency issued by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. Forced to drink contaminated water — including water from the toilet — inmates had multiple health problems: headaches, chest pains, respiratory problems, and trouble with eyesight. But people who reported their ailments were thrown into solitary confinement.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby Luther Blissett » Thu Feb 04, 2016 4:49 pm

Navajo Water Supply is ‘More Horrific than Flint,’ But No One Cares Because they’re Native American

The news out of Flint, Michigan brought the issue of contaminated drinking water into sharp focus, as it was revealed that officials at every level—local, state and federal—knew about lead-poisoned water for months but did nothing to address the problem.

Under state-run systems like utilities and roads, poorer communities are the last to receive attention from government plagued by inefficiencies and corrupt politicians. Perhaps no group knows this better than Native Americans, who have been victimized by government for centuries.

In the western U.S., water contamination has been a way of life for many tribes. As Brenda Norrell, a news reporter in Indian country, describes, the situation in Navajo nation is worse than in Flint, Michigan.

Since the 1950s, their water has been poisoned by uranium mining to fuel the nuclear industry and the making of atomic bombs for the U.S. military. Coal mining and coal-fired power plants have added to the mix. The latest assault on Navajo water was carried out by the massive toxic spills into the Animas and San Juan rivers when the EPA recklessly attempted to address the abandoned Gold King mine.

“In 2015 the Gold King Mine spill was a wake-up call to address dangers of abandoned mines, but there are currently more than 15,000 toxic uranium mines that remain abandoned throughout the US,” said Charmaine White Face from the South Dakota based organization Defenders of the Black Hills. “For more than 50 years, many of these hazardous sites have been contaminating the land, air, water, and national monuments such as Mt. Rushmore and the Grand Canyon. Each one of these thousands of abandoned uranium mines is a potential Gold King mine disaster with the greater added threat of radioactive pollution. For the sake of our health, air, land, and water, we can’t let that happen.”

According to Norrell, there is no comprehensive law requiring cleanup of abandoned uranium mines, meaning corporations and government can walk away from them after exploiting their resources. 75 percent of abandoned uranium mines are on federal and Tribal lands.

Leona Morgan of Diné No Nukes points out one example: “The United Nuclear Corporation mill tailings spill of 1979, north of Churchrock, New Mexico left an immense amount of radioactive contamination that down-streamers, today, are currently receiving in their drinking water. A mostly-Navajo community in Sanders, Arizona has been exposed to twice the legal limit allowable for uranium through their tap.”

Last week, Diné No Nukes participated in protests in Washington, D.C. to raise awareness of past and ongoing contamination of water supplies in the west, which disproportionately affects Indian country.

Protesters warned that more than 15,000 abandoned uranium mines across the country, along with coal mining operations, are contaminating water supplies. Coal-burning power plants are producing radioactive particles and oil drilling is threatening sacred places in New Mexico and Arizona.

“These uranium mines cause radioactive contamination, and as a result all the residents in their vicinity are becoming nuclear radiation victims,” said Petuuche Gilbert of the Laguna Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment, the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment and Indigenous World Association. “New Mexico and the federal government have provided little funding for widespread clean up and only occasionally are old mines remediated. The governments of New Mexico and the United States have a duty to clean up these radioactive mines and mills and, furthermore, to perform health studies to determine the effects of radioactive poisoning. The MASE and LACSE organizations oppose new uranium mining and demand legacy uranium mines to be cleaned up,” said Mr. Gilbert.

Politicians continue to take advantage of Native Americans, making deals with mining companies that would continue polluting their water supplies. Senator John McCain sneaked a resolution into the last defense bill which gave land to Resolution Copper. Their planned copper mining would poison waters that Apaches rely on and would desecrate the ceremonial grounds at Oak Flat.

While EPA and local officials have been forced to address the poisoned water in Flint, the contamination of Indian country water supplies continues. A bill called the Uranium Exploration and Mining Accountability Act, introduced by Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva, has languished in Congress for two years.


I also found out that blood-lead levels in children in my hometown dwarf those in Flint.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 04, 2016 6:14 pm

Less than one month after the attacks of Sept. 11, a senior FBI official, Ronald Dick, told the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, “Due to the vital importance of water to all life forms ... the FBI considers all threats to attack the water supply as serious threats.” In 2003, a UPI article reported that an al-Qaida operative “(does not rule out) using Sarin gas and poisoning drinking water in U.S. and Western cities.’” Where the terrorists have failed to mount any attack on a water supply, the Michigan state government has succeeded. In the city of Flint, lead-poisoned water has been piped into homes and offices since 2014, causing widespread illness and potentially permanent brain damage among its youngest residents.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/ ... oned-water


Arrest Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder for Domestic Terrorism NOW

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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby Burnt Hill » Thu Feb 04, 2016 6:53 pm

seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 04, 2016 6:14 pm wrote:Less than one month after the attacks of Sept. 11, a senior FBI official, Ronald Dick, told the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, “Due to the vital importance of water to all life forms ... the FBI considers all threats to attack the water supply as serious threats.” In 2003, a UPI article reported that an al-Qaida operative “(does not rule out) using Sarin gas and poisoning drinking water in U.S. and Western cities.’” Where the terrorists have failed to mount any attack on a water supply, the Michigan state government has succeeded. In the city of Flint, lead-poisoned water has been piped into homes and offices since 2014, causing widespread illness and potentially permanent brain damage among its youngest residents.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/ ... oned-water


Arrest Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder for Domestic Terrorism NOW

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Perhaps they should charged with the “Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996” . :moresarcasm
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 04, 2016 9:08 pm


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrWZPq7XacY

NERMEEN SHAIKH: If this sounds criminal, several lawmakers at Wednesday’s hearing agree. Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee raised the specter of a 1970s cult leader who led the mass murder-suicide of his more than 900 followers, nearly 300 of them children.

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE: As I sit here today, the memories of a Jim Jones, who gave a poison concoction to children, causes me to say that there is a Jim Jones in Michigan who gave a poison concoction to children and their families. If any of us should demand accountability, we should. ... Mr. Edwards, you have given a recounting of just not putting phosphate in water. And I know that you are not a judge or a jury, and I know you’re a man that believes in the Constitution, but if you had to reflect, would you say that there were criminal activities or results of this inaction?

MARC EDWARDS: If it’s not criminal, I don’t know what is.

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE: I join you in that questioning, and I have asked the Department of Justice to investigate individuals that may be engaged criminally, to hold them criminally responsible for the actions in Flint, Michigan.

Schuette investigation into Flint to go back to 2006
Jennifer Chambers, The Detroit News 6:18 p.m. EST February 4, 2016

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette says his office’s independent investigation into the Flint water crisis will date back to at least 2006, include a team of more than 10 investigators and — he hopes — restore the public trust for the people of Flint.

“Families feel completely betrayed about what happen. The situation is incredibly tragic. Many things went terribly wrong,” Schuette told the editorial board and staff at The Detroit News on Thursday. “This is a step to the road back to regain trust.”

Schuette has brought on two high-profile hired guns to help investigate Flint’s water crisis and create a firewall as his office also defends the state in lawsuits brought by Flint residents. The team said it wanted to evaluate the case as far back as 2006 to cast a wide net as to how the crisis began.

Retired Detroit FBI Chief Andrew Arena will help investigate and former Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Todd Flood will serve as special counsel for the Flint probe.

The appointments will help create an “iron-clad conflict wall” between the investigation and civil lawsuits, according to the Republican attorney general, whose announcement was met by pushback from Democrats, who continue to question Schuette’s ability to represent the people of Flint with impartiality.

Schuette said his office has conducted similar parallel investigations, including in the case involving the Public Service Commission and rate hikes.

The attorney general’s office also created a similar firewall in Detroit’s 2014 bankruptcy case, tapping Chief Legal Counsel Matthew Schneider as lead counsel for the state while Schuette interjected on behalf of pensioners.

Arena, who attended the meeting at The News, said his goal is to determine the facts and whether any criminal or civil laws have been broken. That means asking for reports, email messages, texts and other communication between departments and employees involved in the water crisis.

“It’s not going to be quick. But we are going to do this as quickly as we can for Flint residents,” Arena said.

Arena said he is compiling a team of investigators including computer forensic specialists to look at all aspects of the case.

“It’s a cardinal sin to say ‘I know what happened.’ We are coming in with our eyes wide open. I am not a politician,” Arena said. “This is about public trust. People don’t trust the government.

“I’m not asking the people of Flint to trust us. ... I’m asking them to give us a chance.”

Schuette launched the investigation Jan. 15, vowing to determine whether any state laws had been broken in the beleaguered city, where residents continue to rely on bottled and filtered water after the discovery of elevated lead levels in the tap water and the blood of some children.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boiG4VewSk4
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Feb 05, 2016 4:14 pm

According to the study, if a pregnant woman is exposed to lead, the damage can pass not only to the child she is carrying, but also to the child's offspring. The lead causes DNA methylation that could affect the grandchildren.



Scientist says lead exposure in Flint comparable to post-war Iraq
By Ali Harb | Thursday, 02.04.2016, 12:52 PM

Dr. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani
ANN ARBOR — A local scientist who studies birth defects linked to toxins caused by bombs said lead exposure in Flint children is comparable to the pollution in post-war Iraq.
Dr. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, an Ann Arbor-based researcher, praised Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha for exposing the high levels of lead in the blood of Flint's children.
Savabieasfahani won the Rachel Carson Prize, an international environmental award last year for her research on the impact of war on public health. She has been monitoring lead levels in the teeth and hair of Iraqi children who grew up in combat zones.
Flint water was contaminated after the state-appointed emergency manager switched its source from the Detroit system to the Flint River. The water caused corrosion in the pipes, which led to the contamination. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality kept assuring residents that the water is safe despite complaints of rashes and foul odor. Late last year, the crisis turned into a national scandal that shook Lansing.
Savabieasfahani explained that bombs and missiles contain lead, which turns into small particles that pollutes the soil and the air.
"The level of lead that we see in the teeth of the children of Basra is quite reminiscent of what they see in Flint; you can more or less compare them," she said. "But the point is that there should be no lead in any child. With lead, there is no level that is safe for children."
The scientist said lead is "terribly toxic" and harms multiple systems in the body. It could halt a child's physical and mental development and cause behavioral changes and low IQ.
"Your mental ability would be compromised," she said. "You would have diminished mental capacity. Your IQ will suffer. This is what will be happening to thousands of children in Flint and more children than I can think of in Iraq and Syria and other places where bombs go off, and nobody stops to think what happens to the children."
Savabieasfahani cited a Wayne State University study by Dr. Douglas Ruden, highlighting the danger of lead. According to the study, if a pregnant woman is exposed to lead, the damage can pass not only to the child she is carrying, but also to the child's offspring. The lead causes DNA methylation that could affect the grandchildren.
"It's a known fact that babies in the womb can be affected by low levels of lead exposure," reads a release by WSU. "If a pregnant woman is exposed to lead, the lead passes through the placenta into the baby's developing bones and other organs. Pregnant women with a past exposure to lead can also affect the unborn child's brain, causing developmental problems later in life."
Savabieasfahani said lead exposure is an environmental justice issue in Flint as well as Iraq.
She added that the poor people of Flint suffered from pollution, much like the powerless people of Iraq.
"The fact that you're poor leads to more environmental hardship — exposure to toxic stuff," she said. "That is true from Flint, which is a poor Black town in the United States, to Fallujah and Hawijah, where people live, and where people who are there are not in control of their life because they have to deal with destruction and occupation."




where people who are there are not in control of their life because they have to deal with destruction and occupation



The Iraqi immigrant doctor who saved Flint
| Thursday, 01.21.2016, 08:10 PM


FLINT, Michigan — Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha an Iraqi immigrant, is being credited for blowing the whistle on the Flint water crisis.

Her friend was a water expert who had worked for the Environmental Protection Agency when the District of Columbia encountered similar issues there more than a decade ago.
When she told Hanna-Attisha that she had heard the city of Flint wasn’t doing “corrosion control” to prevent lead in aging pipes from leaching into the water supply, the doctor didn’t need to be told twice about the gravity of the potential consequences.
Through her work, Hanna-Attisha already had heard complaints from Flint residents since officials switched the city’s water supply from Lake Huron to the dirty Flint River in April 2014 as a cost-cutting measure.
The water was brown, and it smelled and tasted bad. Residents reported developing rashes and eye irritations, and had been advised to boil their water because of the presence of E. coli.
The prospect of lead in the water made her realize urgent action was needed. Her response, she said, was to undertake “the easiest research project I’ve ever done.”
The hospital routinely screened children — who are most vulnerable to lead exposure — at ages 1 and 2 for the substance, monitoring levels among infants who may have ingested the neurotoxin through eating paint chips in their homes, for example.
Her research involved comparing the lead levels in samples taken before and after the switch in the water supply.
What she found was incontrovertible. The percentage of children in Flint with lead poisoning had doubled.
Having uncovered the shocking data, Hanna- Attisha took the unconventional step of sharing the findings at a September press conference, flanked by medical colleagues.
Unfortunately, at that time, she was labeled an “unfortunate researcher” and was accused of causing hysteria.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby Iamwhomiam » Sun Feb 07, 2016 2:19 pm

Emails show early confusion over Hoosick Falls water pollution
Conflicting opinions and vague regulations led to delays in notifying public

By Brendan J. Lyons Updated 9:19 am, Sunday, February 7, 2016

A string of rare cancer deaths in Hoosick Falls has residents concerned about their water supply. While the state unveiled a plan Wednesday to deal with the problem, environmental activist Erin Brockovich ...

Hoosick Falls

The state Health Department was made aware in August 2014 that a toxic chemical had contaminated Hoosick Falls' village water system, but conflicting information and a lack of regulations led to months of delays in notifying the public about the situation, documents show.

The documents, including a timeline and chain of emails released by Rensselaer County late last week, indicate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was also made aware of the water contamination in December 2014, but the information was never forwarded to the EPA's regional administrator, Judith Enck, who said she did not learn about the contamination problem for another 10 months.

The records confirm that village leaders first contacted county and state health officials 18 months ago seeking guidance after they were told by a resident about the toxic chemical and its health effects. Still, the Village Board kept its initial inquiries about the pollution secret, including two meetings where village trustees discussed the matter behind closed doors in August and October 2014, according to village records.

Mayor David B. Borge did not respond to questions about why the public was excluded from those early meetings. At the August 2014 meeting, Borge did not mention the impending water crisis when he told members of the public that the board was entering a closed session "to discuss personnel and security issues."

That same week, email exchanges between state and county health officials began in earnest after Michael Hickey, a Hoosick Falls resident, contacted Borge and told him a possible spike in cancer and other serious health effects in the village may be the result of exposure to a chemical used for decades by several local factories.

The man-made chemical, perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, has been used since the 1940s to make industrial and household products like non-stick coatings and heat-resistant wiring, including at a factory near the village water treatment plant owned by Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics. The plant, which Saint-Gobain bought in 1999, was one of at least six manufacturing sites in the region that used PFOA, EPA data said.

By October 2014, emails confirm, county and state health officials were aware the levels of PFOA in the village water system exceeded federal advisories for safe drinking water. But the advisory was not binding, and health officials debated whether public notification was even required.

"From talking with the mayor this may become a very public issue once they release these and since they are above the only guidance we have (even though it is not regulated) it may get messy," Richard Elder, Rensselaer County's environmental health director, wrote in an email sent to state Health Department officials that month.

Christopher J. Meyer, county deputy executive, said health officials were not seeking to cover up the situation — they were grappling with muddled federal regulations and what they perceived as an unclear EPA advisory on dangers of PFOA exposure. He said their primary goal from the beginning was to identify the source of the contamination and have it removed from the village water system.

"The concern for our county health department from the start was the lack of a regulatory standard from either the federal or state government," Meyer said. "While the EPA had a guidance of no more than 400 ppt, that is not a regulatory standard that can be used to declare a public water supply out of compliance. This is why the county health department immediately contacted the state for assistance and guidance as to what steps could and should be taken to ensure the health and safety of those using the Hoosick Falls water system."

But the EPA's advisory level — 400 parts per trillion — is for short-term exposure and not intended for situations like Hoosick Falls, where residents were drinking the contaminated water for possibly decades, officials said.

In an Aug. 14, 2014, email, Kimberly Evans McGee, who works in the state Health Department's Bureau of Water Supply Protection, informed county health officials that PFOA is an "unregulated contaminant" and the village therefore was "not required to conduct any remedial activity if detected."

In another email two months later, Evans McGee told several of her colleagues in the state Health Department's Center for Environmental Health that there was very little information on PFOA's health effects. The email was forwarded to a Rensselaer County Health Department official.

"Since these are unregulated contaminants, we have little information on them, including health effects information," Evans McGee wrote.

James Plastiras, a state Health Department spokesman, said "emails show there was some contact at the staff level back in August, and DOH staff was trying to provide responses to requirements related to an unregulated contaminant about which there was little conclusive information.

"After the Village conducted testing in October and November, they asked DOH for assistance in interpreting the results," he added. "We have been working very closely with the village, town and county since then, helping to determine the best filtration options, conducting our own testing of the Village water supply, the school and private wells and providing technical advice and assistance.

Elder recently drafted a timeline of Rensselaer County's handling of the situation. It notes that village leaders rebuffed the state's advice that they only needed to disclose the discovery of the PFOA in an annual water quality report that, arguably, many residents never read.

"After discussion with the village this was unreasonable and a request was made ... to NYSDOH BTSA (Bureau of Toxic Substance Assessment) to develop health effects' language that the village could provide to the residents," Elder wrote. It took another few months for the state Health Department to draft the controversial document that the village finally sent to residents Jan. 12, 2015.

But the state's advisory instructed residents that the level of PFOA detected in the water system --"does not constitute an immediate health hazard ... (and) the studies are not strong enough to draw a definitive conclusion about whether PFOA causes cancer in humans."

The state's position, adopted by the village for nearly a year, began changing two months ago amid growing pressure from the EPA and a citizens' group led by Hickey. Up to that month, Borge, the mayor, kept telling residents it was a "personal choice" whether to drink and cook with the water. Borge, at public meetings on the contamination, said he and his family continued to drink the water. His position finally changed in mid-December when the EPA's Enck, sent the village a second letter telling them they should be warning people to stop drinking or cooking with the water.

That same week, Robert A. Bilott, an Ohio attorney helping represent an estimated 3,500 people in a class-action lawsuit against DuPont, which made and used PFOA in its products, wrote a letter to Borge and the state Health Department urging them to change their position on the health risks of PFOA in drinking water. Bilott said he's represented "tens of thousands of individuals in various communities across the country who have been injured because of the contamination of their drinking water with PFOA."

Bilott said a science panel formed as a result of litigation with DuPont did a comprehensive study of the health effects of exposure to PFOA and issued a peer-reviewed report concluding the chemical has a "probable link" to six diseases, including kidney and testicular cancer.

Still, there was also a breakdown in communication within the EPA. The federal agency was notified about the PFOA pollution in Hoosick Falls by state and county health officials in December 2014. Also, that same month Saint-Gobain sent a letter to the EPA disclosing that elevated levels of the chemical were found in the village water system. The company also found levels of PFOA as high as 18,000 ppt in the groundwater under their McCaffrey Street plant, which is a few hundred yards from the village water treatment plant.

But Enck, who is from Rensselaer County, said she was not made aware of the situation until last October, when she was contacted by David Engel, an attorney for the citizens' group, Healthy Hoosick Water, and then a Rensselaer County official.

"I first learned when Rensselaer County executive Kathy Jimino emailed me on October 15, 2015 inquiring if EPA had about $2 million to provide to the village of Hoosick Falls to install a water treatment system to remove contaminants," Enck said in an email. "It took me a few weeks to figure out what was going on and in November I wrote to the mayor advising him not to allow residents to drink the water."

blyons@timesunion.com • 518-454-5547 • @brendan_lyonstu

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/EPA-and-state-warned-of-Hoosick-Falls-water-6812774.php
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Feb 07, 2016 3:07 pm

SUNDAY, FEB 7, 2016 07:00 AM CST
Flint’s structural racism: This is why providing poisoned water to the city’s citizens seemed like a reasonable idea
Racism's skeptics will continue to deny the effects of racism in Flint. But it's imperative we confront it
KEMI FUENTES-GEORGE

The ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan, illustrates both how deeply racism has affected the social fabric, and why it’s so difficult to talk about racism in modern America. On one hand, the statistics show an environmental catastrophe that is unambiguously borne disproportionately by black Americans. The municipal water in Flint, a city that is majority black, is stunningly polluted. Besides the fecal bacteria, discoloration and corrosive chemicals in Flint’s water, some homes have recorded lead levels of 13,200 parts per billion, almost 1,000 times higher than those that would ordinarily trigger federal environmental action. Thus, residents have to contend not only with immediate problems like rashes, hair loss and waterborne illnesses, but also long-term effects of lead poisoning, including delayed cognitive development and mood disorders. As groups and advocates from the NAACP, Black Lives Matter and Michael Moore have pointed out, it is difficult to imagine this happening in a majority white, wealthier city.

On the other hand, there are elements of the crisis that challenge the narrative that this was a crisis perpetuated (deliberately or not) by racist individuals against a minority population. None of the emails released by Gov. Rick Snyder illustrating the political decisions that led to the Flint water crisis mention race, and there is no evidence that Snyder was motivated by racial animus. Indeed, Gov. Snyder has poured tens of millions of dollars into majority-black Detroit to help schools and stave off bankruptcy, and has expanded Medicaid access in a move that primarily benefits lower-income, disproportionately black, citizens. Further, while the water ailments in Flint are borne largely by black Americans, they are not borne exclusively by blacks. Everyone who has drank from or used Flint’s water has been exposed to lead, bacteria and industrial chemicals, including the approximately 38,000 white residents. The emergency manager in charge of running Flint when the state government switched the water source to the Flint River, Darnell Earley, is black.

At first glance then, those who are skeptical of the effect of racism on America’s political economy would contend that, while tragic, the poisoning of Flint’s water was hardly racist. Indeed, the primary explanation for Flint’s woes is not racial, but economic; the near-total withdrawal of federal support for water services in the years after the 1972 Clean Water Act combined with an ailing infrastructure and a declining tax base in Flint meant that the city and state were strapped for cash. In an effort to cut corners, the state had “no choice” but to abandon any renovations of the dilapidated water infrastructure, and use the cheapest source of water available, despite persistent questions about its suitability. Of course, it is not entirely clear that “because they are poor” is an acceptable reason to expose people to a poisoned water source. Nevertheless, despite Moore’s claims of “racial killing,” or political cartoons by Wuerker that invoke Jim Crow era segregation of water coolers, the decision to expose people to toxic water in Flint was not made through an explicit racial calculus.

However, we cannot meaningfully discuss what is happening with water in Flint without discussing racism. Simply put, the economic situation in Flint and the logic that made providing poisoned water seem like a reasonable idea would not have occurred without racism. Of the racist practices that have contributed to the current crisis, perhaps best documented are those of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which, in the 1930s, began underwriting residential developments across America. This federal agency had through the 1960s an explicit mandate to deny or limit financial services in Michigan and elsewhere “based on racial or ethnic composition without regard to the residents’ qualifications or creditworthiness.” In other words, otherwise qualified black and minority households were denied access to economic mobility solely on the basis of their race. Further, even white residents could be denied FHA services if they lived too near to “inharmonious racial or nationality groups.” This clearly race-based program 1) made it far easier for whites to get access to improved housing, and 2) incentivized white residents to self-segregate, since white people in integrated neighborhoods would be punished economically just as much as their black neighbors. Of course, this federally institutionalized practice known as “redlining” was joined by other state-level and private-actor discriminatory practices that undermined the economic health of black and minority populations.

Thus, even after the passage of the various civil rights acts of the 1960s, and the end of explicitly racist policies, black economic power and the black tax base remained enervated due to decades of disenfranchisement. Cities and towns like Flint and Detroit became majority black, and increasingly relatively poor, as wealthier white residents left in droves, subsidized in part by government-backed programs. Worse, the Reaganite state and federal economic policies started in the 1980s, such as the retrenchment of social services, deregulation of industry, and shrinking funding for municipal infrastructure may have been ostensibly race-blind, but their impacts were anything but. Since decades of deliberate racism functioned to keep blacks poorer and concentrated in the funding-starved inner cities, the effects of these later policies – even without mentioning race – had clear racial impacts. Majority black, majority urban areas lost jobs, social safety nets and, because of gerrymandering and high rates of incarceration, voting and political power. Even without deliberate racism, the American political economy was informed by structural racism.

With the political and economic disenfranchisement of a people comes environmental vulnerability. As early as the 1980s, studies by the United Church of Christ on toxic waste production and siting in America have documented how these socioeconomically and racially marginalized communities have become the repositories of America’s pollution. In much the same way that the Flint River became a sink for industrial runoff and sewage, black and inner-city communities in places like Warren County became the places to build toxic waste disposal sites and incinerators. That these communities were chosen to be made more vulnerable to air and water pollution was no accident – being disenfranchised, their objections to being poisoned were far less politically salient to policymakers than the objections of wealthier, whiter communities. As I have argued above, this disenfranchisement is a direct product of the racist logic of the modern American economy. Indeed, as communities from Warren County through the current BLM movement in Flint have attested, the modern civil rights struggle is environmental, as much as it is about policing or economic opportunities.

Of course, the fact we cannot show deliberately racist decision-making to explain Flint means that racism’s skeptics, of which Gov. Snyder is one, will continue to deny the clear effects of structural racism in Flint and other cities. It is imperative that we confront this racism, however. As Flint shows, structural racism can lead to “social murder,” where even without clear homicidal intent, the incentives in a social system lead to increased mortality and vulnerability in targeted populations. In thinking about the long-term effects of lead poisoning on children, we should worry about the educational and employment opportunities of the Flint residents. Those challenges will inevitably harm long-term prospects of social mobility, in turn subjecting the citizens to greater social as well as environmental vulnerability.

Finally, even for those of us who are not residents of Flint, the structural racism visible that led to Flint’s crisis is a concern for all. Aside from the general humanitarian concerns we should feel for a vulnerable population, the poisoning of Flint’s water is a dire warning of how political and economic racism can undermine environmental sustainability writ large. While the American political economy has done pretty well so far at externalizing environmental costs to the poor and marginalized, environmental hazards do travel, perhaps more easily than poor black citizens. In the same way that racist and authoritarian police practices have killed Eric Garner, Jack Crawford and Kelly Thomas, the environmental vulnerability that has devastated Flint – rotting infrastructure, industrial pollution, intransigent political institutions – puts us all at risk.


The FBI considers all threats to attack the water supply as serious threats.
Less than one month after the attacks of Sept. 11, a senior FBI official, Ronald Dick, told the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, “Due to the vital importance of water to all life forms ... the FBI considers all threats to attack the water supply as serious threats.” In 2003, a UPI article reported that an al-Qaida operative “(does not rule out) using Sarin gas and poisoning drinking water in U.S. and Western cities.’” Where the terrorists have failed to mount any attack on a water supply, the Michigan state government has succeeded. In the city of Flint, lead-poisoned water has been piped into homes and offices since 2014, causing widespread illness and potentially permanent brain damage among its youngest residents.


http://www.commondreams.org/views/20...poisoned-water
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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