This Would Not Happen If They Were White: Race, Class, and Politics in Flint, Michiga

[mick silver]

January 26, 2016 This Would Not Happen If They Were White: Race, Class, and Politics in Flint, Michigan (http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/26/this-would-not-happen-if-they-were-white-race-class-and-politics-in-flint-michigan/)
by Lawrence Ware (http://www.counterpunch.org/author/laware1126/) by









Email (http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/26/this-would-not-happen-if-they-were-white-race-class-and-politics-in-flint-michigan/?share=email&nb=1)







http://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/dropzone/2015/07/print-sp.png (http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/26/this-would-not-happen-if-they-were-white-race-class-and-politics-in-flint-michigan/print/)

http://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/dropzone/2016/01/shutterstock_315865412.jpg
The water crisis in the city of Flint represents one of the most egregious examples of dereliction of duty in the state of Michigan’s long history of dereliction. The 274-page release of emails shows a local government unresponsive to the consistent complaints of residents because of fiscal concerns over water supply and conflicting reports of lead contamination. This would not have happened in Auburn Hills, the middle class, mostly white suburb of Detroit. No, the residents of Flint are dealing with lead poisoning, the extent of which we will not know for many years, because they made three primary “mistakes.”
They are Mostly Black
The racial composition of Flint is 56.6% African American. I have no doubt that if it had been white residents voicing their concerns about the quality of the water, the response from the state government would have been swift and aggressive; but the slow response represents an expression of a kind of institutional empathy gap. This ‘gap’ refers to a cognitive bias wherein a person underestimates the visceral nature of pain experienced by another—it is particularly applicable when the person in pain is black (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=201128359). Therefore, since those in power were responding to mostly black folks, I find it unsurprising that they were less responsive to the complaints filed.
Environmental racism was a concept developed in the 1980s. It refers (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/us/a-question-of-environmental-racism-in-flint.html?_r=0) to the “disproportionate exposure of blacks to polluted air, water and soil.” Poverty and redlining are the primary reason why black and brown people disproportionately live in industrialized areas that expose them to higher amounts of pollutants. Add, now, irresponsive public officials that give rise to an institutional empathy gap to the list of things that contribute to environmental racism.
They are Poor
Reading statistics about Flint and poverty makes me think of stories my mother, aunts, and uncles would tell me of living in rural Oklahoma. They would often tell me that they were poor, but they were unaware of it because everyone else around them was poor as well. For them, it was just a way of life. The same is true of Flint.
The US Census Bureau recently reported (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/26/2629000.html) that Flint, Michigan is the second most impoverished city for its size—right behind Youngstown, Ohio. Just over 40 percent of the municipality’s residents are living at or below the poverty line. Those in power find it easy to ignore the cries of poor people—especially if those poor people happen to be largely black.
They are Democrats.
The people of Flint, Michigan, throughout history, have consistently voted democratically. No, that’s putting it too lightly. Let me put it this way: I have no doubt that Bernie Sanders would give Hilary Clinton a serious fight for the votes of the city. In 2006, the Bay Area Center for Voting Research ranked Flint as the 10th most liberal city in the United States. It was ranked as more liberal than Baltimore, Maryland, and Cleveland, Ohio. I think this is important in understanding the response of the Republican Governor Rick Snyder and his Republican Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General.
Put bluntly, since the voters in Flint, Michigan, are a lost cause and of no use to the Republican lead state government, those in power have little incentive to respond to the complaints. Compound this political disincentive with what has been explicated above (racism and classism), and you have a recipe for disaster. As the citizens of the city lost hair and developed rashes, as poor brown children drank water that was tainted with E. Coli and smelled of metal and gas, those with the power to help did nothing.
Representative Dan Kildee was elected to represent the citizens of Flint. He called race (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/us/a-question-of-environmental-racism-in-flint.html?_r=0) “the single greatest determinant of what happened in Flint.” That may be true, but it doesn’t help to be poor and democratic in Michigan, either. In fact, as this water crisis shows, it can get you killed.

Lawrence Ware is a professor of philosophy and diversity coordinator for Oklahoma State University’s Ethics Center. He can be reached at

[Jewboo]

Environmental racism was a concept developed in the 1980s. It refers (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/us/a-question-of-environmental-racism-in-flint.html?_r=0) to the “disproportionate exposure of blacks to polluted air, water and soil.” Poverty and redlining are the primary reason why black and brown people disproportionately live in industrialized areas that expose them to higher amounts of pollutants. Add, now, irresponsive public officials that give rise to an institutional empathy gap to the list of things that contribute to environmental racism.



http://il5.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/1537555/thumb/1.jpg
Street in Africa. No White people around to blame for their filth


:rolleyes:

[Ares]

Lawrence Ware is a fucking moron.

Here is the Flint City Council. Maybe he should take it up with them since they are the ones in charge.


1st Ward

Eric Mays
https://www.cityofflint.com/wp-content/uploads/Eric-Mays-ward-1-188x300.jpg
(810) 922-4860


2nd Ward

Jacqueline Poplar
https://www.cityofflint.com/wp-content/uploads/Jacqueline-Poplar-ward-2-188x300.jpg

(810) 766-7418 ext. 3162

3rd Ward

Kerry Nelson

https://www.cityofflint.com/wp-content/uploads/Kerry-Nelson-ward-3-188x300.jpg

(810)766-7418 ext. 3161


4th Ward

Temporarily Vacant

(810) 766-7418

5th Ward

Wantwaz Davis

https://www.cityofflint.com/wp-content/uploads/Wantwaz-D-Davis-ward-5-188x300.jpg

(810)766-7418 ext.3167

6th Ward

Herbert Winfrey

https://www.cityofflint.com/wp-content/uploads/Herbert-J-Winfrey-ward-6-188x300.jpg

(810)766-7418 ext.3165


7th Ward

Monica Galloway

https://www.cityofflint.com/wp-content/uploads/Monica-Galloway-ward-7-188x300.jpg

(810)766-7418 ext.3163

8th Ward

Vicki VanBuren

https://www.cityofflint.com/wp-content/uploads/Vicki-VanBuren-ward-8-188x300.jpg

(810)766-7418 ext.3159

9th Ward

Scott Kincaid

https://www.cityofflint.com/wp-content/uploads/Scott-Kincaid-ward-9-188x300.jpg

(810)766-7418 ext.3158

There is ONE white guy on the city council, and this writer wants to bitch about white oppression. Really??

[singular_me]

lets discuss this again when tent cities become a model for america.



Street in Africa. No White people around to blame for their filth
:rolleyes:

[7th trump]

http://il5.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/1537555/thumb/1.jpg
Street in Africa. No White people around to blame for their filth


:rolleyes:


This picture only proves that the black race doesn't understand white structural societies.
What did they expect when you put the black race (democratic to boot...gibsmedats) in charge of a white structural society?

Their mind set is to live in the "now"...not for the future. The warmer the climates the more you see those societies having the "live for now" mind set.
Colder regions cannot live for now...they have to store for the future or suffer a miserable winter. This mind set conditions one to think ahead and for the future which flows over into every aspect of life.

[Spectrism]

lets discuss this again when tent cities become a model for america.


Yes- the Head Nigger In Charge (HNIC) will have America in tents before too long.

[madfranks]

I have no doubt that if it had been white residents voicing their concerns about the quality of the water, the response from the state government would have been swift and aggressive

The blacks inherited a system built by whites, which included a system to provide clean water, and now it's breaking down. The problem isn't black people voicing concerns to uncaring white people, it's the fact that black people are now running the damn show. This is how they manage their cities, this is how they live, because they don't know how to provide clean water for themselves. And because they don't know how to maintain a city water system, when it breaks down instead of fixing it they blame whitey, because they can't fix it. Like Ares said:


There is ONE white guy on the city council, and this writer wants to bitch about white oppression. Really??

[Joshua01]

The blacks inherited a system built by whites, which included a system to provide clean water, and now it's breaking down. The problem isn't black people voicing concerns to uncaring white people, it's the fact that black people are now running the damn show. This is how they manage their cities, this is how they live, because they don't know how to provide clean water for themselves. And because they don't know how to maintain a city water system, when it breaks down instead of fixing it they blame whitey, because they can't fix it. Like Ares said:

Anyone who remains in the cities will need to deal with this directly. I for one, left the city a long time ago. The country will rot from the cities outward. Living in the country I can watch things deteriorate without worrying too much about how it affects me. I'm pretty much off the grid, have my own well, septic and electricity. The cities can rot to dust for all I care...and they will!

[PatColo]

Leaked Emails Show Government Officials Making Fun of Poisoned Flint Residents
3 mins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzNKKrqbgxQ

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

[ximmy]

lets discuss this again when tent cities become a model for america.

You can be super poor and still be clean.

These are cultural manners presented here.
Once in my old apartment complex I happened to be looking out the window to the parking lot. A Black woman in a Mercedes was wiping her car off with tissues and dropping them around her car as she cleaned it... There must have been 20 tissues on the ground around her car as she drove away. I wanted to go down there but I know she could clobber me. I went down, pissed off... and picked up all the tissues and threw them away. I felt better.

Even the black homeless here in Pasadena, those who stake out an off ramp from the freeway. Their ten feet of turf is littered with their crap and trash.

Why do black people litter so much? - Discussion on Topix (http://www.topix.com/forum/city/pittsburgh-pa/THPQ421HT5MQ51A5G)
www.topix.com › Pennsylvania › Allegheny County › Pittsburgh
Sep 5, 2014 - Blacks spend more time talking about money and dressings like they have .... DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH BLACK PEOPLE LITTERING?Why do black people litter? (http://www.topix.com/forum/city/terre-haute-in/TKD41DTTKK5B56I7C)
Oct 10, 2012

Why do blacks litter so much? (http://www.topix.com/forum/afam/TINN6AHEK4BUABSTT)
Jul 16, 2008
More results from www.topix.com (https://www.google.com/search?q=why+do+blacks+litter+site:www.topix.com&biw=1920&bih=969&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjquu_2kMjKAhVV7mMKHT12BfcQrQIIJigCMAA)

Why Do Niggers Litter! - Home (http://chimpmania.com/forum/showthread.php?28143-Why-Do-Niggers-Litter%21)
chimpmania.com › Forum › WHY DO NIGGERS...
Mar 28, 2013 - 25 posts - ‎17 authors
This just infuriates me to no end! I just don't understand why niggers litter all the time! And this is not my imagination, because I see it all the ...

Black Trash - CityBeat (http://citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-27564-black_trash.html)
citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-27564-black_trash.html
Cincinnati CityBeat
Apr 24, 2013 - Poor black people who mindlessly and carelessly litter do not understand the long-lasting effects of landfills on the Earth in all that trash swept ...

No Talking Points: Don Lemon Lists 5 Ways Black People ... (http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/07/no-talking-points-don-lemon-lists-5-ways-black-people-need-to-change-to-end-racism/)
www.clutchmagonline.com/.../no-talking-points-don-lemon-lists-5...
Clutch
Jul 29, 2013 - Because only black people litter (our melanin predisposes us to ... And why do black people have to be perfect in order to be treated fairly?

Black Teenager Severely Beats Man Over Litter Comment (http://www.sullivan-county.com/racism/beaten.htm)
www.sullivan-county.com/racism/beaten.htm
May 27, 2012 - A man is violently attack by a black teenager after asking him to pick up his litter. ... was apparently "profiling" the unarmed African American teenager and the ... Do I really need to Google "crime by race in Washington D.C."?

Are black people worse about littering than white people ... (http://jacksonville.com/forums/rants-raves-forum/2012-04-11/are-black-people-worse-about-littering-white-people)
jacksonville.com/.../are-black-people-worse-ab...
The Florida Times‑Union
Apr 11, 2012 - Newcastle, I haven't noticed the littering problem but I do have a problem with .... is no, black people are not worse than whites about littering.

“Pull Up Your Pants…Stop Littering…”: CNN's Don Lemon ... (http://madamenoire.com/288350/pull-up-your-pants-stop-littering-cnns-don-lemon-gives-five-points-on-how-to-save-the-black-community/)
madamenoire.com/.../pull-up-your-pants-stop-littering-cnns-don-lemon-...
Jul 28, 2013 - Respect where you live (this includes not littering. ..... Now, do I agree with Black people littering, wearing their pants below their waist, ...

Why Do So Many Black People Litter? - BGCLive.com (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjquu_2kMjKAhVV7mMKHT12BfcQFghWMAc&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbgclive.com%2Fboard%2Fviewtopic.p hp%3Ft%3D817835&usg=AFQjCNGGJO9lYuShz-xFV_dTh_LDy4EWxw&bvm=bv.112766941,d.cGc)
bgclive.com › Forum Index › General Discussions

[Joshua01]

You can be super poor and still be clean.

These are cultural manners presented here.
Once in my old apartment complex I happened to be looking out the window to the parking lot. A Black woman in a Mercedes was wiping her car off with tissues and dropping them around her car as she cleaned it... There must have been 20 tissues on the ground around her car as she drove away. I wanted to go down there but I know she could clobber me. I went down, pissed off... and picked up all the tissues and threw them away. I felt better.

Even the black homeless here in Pasadena, those who stake out an off ramp from the freeway. Their ten feet of turf is littered with their crap and trash.

Why do black people litter so much? - Discussion on Topix (http://www.topix.com/forum/city/pittsburgh-pa/THPQ421HT5MQ51A5G)
www.topix.com › Pennsylvania › Allegheny County › Pittsburgh
Sep 5, 2014 - Blacks spend more time talking about money and dressings like they have .... DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH BLACK PEOPLE LITTERING?Why do black people litter? (http://www.topix.com/forum/city/terre-haute-in/TKD41DTTKK5B56I7C)
Oct 10, 2012

Why do blacks litter so much? (http://www.topix.com/forum/afam/TINN6AHEK4BUABSTT)
Jul 16, 2008
More results from www.topix.com (https://www.google.com/search?q=why+do+blacks+litter+site:www.topix.com&biw=1920&bih=969&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjquu_2kMjKAhVV7mMKHT12BfcQrQIIJigCMAA)

Why Do Niggers Litter! - Home (http://chimpmania.com/forum/showthread.php?28143-Why-Do-Niggers-Litter%21)
chimpmania.com › Forum › WHY DO NIGGERS...
Mar 28, 2013 - 25 posts - ‎17 authors
This just infuriates me to no end! I just don't understand why niggers litter all the time! And this is not my imagination, because I see it all the ...

Black Trash - CityBeat (http://citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-27564-black_trash.html)
citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-27564-black_trash.html
Cincinnati CityBeat
Apr 24, 2013 - Poor black people who mindlessly and carelessly litter do not understand the long-lasting effects of landfills on the Earth in all that trash swept ...

No Talking Points: Don Lemon Lists 5 Ways Black People ... (http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/07/no-talking-points-don-lemon-lists-5-ways-black-people-need-to-change-to-end-racism/)
www.clutchmagonline.com/.../no-talking-points-don-lemon-lists-5...
Clutch
Jul 29, 2013 - Because only black people litter (our melanin predisposes us to ... And why do black people have to be perfect in order to be treated fairly?

Black Teenager Severely Beats Man Over Litter Comment (http://www.sullivan-county.com/racism/beaten.htm)
www.sullivan-county.com/racism/beaten.htm
May 27, 2012 - A man is violently attack by a black teenager after asking him to pick up his litter. ... was apparently "profiling" the unarmed African American teenager and the ... Do I really need to Google "crime by race in Washington D.C."?

Are black people worse about littering than white people ... (http://jacksonville.com/forums/rants-raves-forum/2012-04-11/are-black-people-worse-about-littering-white-people)
jacksonville.com/.../are-black-people-worse-ab...
The Florida Times‑Union
Apr 11, 2012 - Newcastle, I haven't noticed the littering problem but I do have a problem with .... is no, black people are not worse than whites about littering.

“Pull Up Your Pants…Stop Littering…”: CNN's Don Lemon ... (http://madamenoire.com/288350/pull-up-your-pants-stop-littering-cnns-don-lemon-gives-five-points-on-how-to-save-the-black-community/)
madamenoire.com/.../pull-up-your-pants-stop-littering-cnns-don-lemon-...
Jul 28, 2013 - Respect where you live (this includes not littering. ..... Now, do I agree with Black people littering, wearing their pants below their waist, ...

Why Do So Many Black People Litter? - BGCLive.com (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjquu_2kMjKAhVV7mMKHT12BfcQFghWMAc&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbgclive.com%2Fboard%2Fviewtopic.p hp%3Ft%3D817835&usg=AFQjCNGGJO9lYuShz-xFV_dTh_LDy4EWxw&bvm=bv.112766941,d.cGc)
bgclive.com › Forum Index › General Discussions

Black culture in the cities is such that they don't respect their environment. They're default behavior is to trash the place then blame whitey for not cleaning up/repairing/replacing the destruction their behavior leaves in its wake. Africa is the best place for the negro because there's nothing there for them to destroy and nature heals itself without EBT cards and Obama phones

[madfranks]

To add to Ximmy's post above, I used to live in Corpus Christi, Texas, where white folks are a minority, and blacks and mexicans are the majority. The city was full of litter, and I witnessed it many times. I would be at Walmart and watch a non-white family empty their car of trash into a grocery cart and then drive away, leaving the trash-filled cart in the parking lot. It was normal to see moms change their baby's diapers in the parking lot and leave the dirty diaper on the ground. They were called "Walmart Burritos," a term I did not make up or invent, but it's just what they call them down there. Another trait is, in grocery stores or dollar stores, they were always a mess because the non-whites would fill up their carts or baskets with what they wanted as they browsed the store, then when they were done they'd rifle through their carts to see what they actually wanted to buy, and then drop the rest on the floor or just put it on the shelf where they are, even if it didn't belong there. I was told that this is because, in their native lands, things are scarce so they want to hold as much as they can so nobody else can take it, even if they don't plan to buy it, they are "holding" it in case they decide they do want it at the end. Either way, I'm glad I left that shithole of a city, and now I live in a 99% white suburb and the stores are clean and the people are nice.

[cheka.]

To add to Ximmy's post above, I used to live in Corpus Christi, Texas, where white folks are a minority, and blacks and mexicans are the majority. The city was full of litter, and I witnessed it many times. I would be at Walmart and watch a non-white family empty their car of trash into a grocery cart and then drive away, leaving the trash-filled cart in the parking lot. It was normal to see moms change their baby's diapers in the parking lot and leave the dirty diaper on the ground. They were called "Walmart Burritos," a term I did not make up or invent, but it's just what they call them down there. Another trait is, in grocery stores or dollar stores, they were always a mess because the non-whites would fill up their carts or baskets with what they wanted as they browsed the store, then when they were done they'd rifle through their carts to see what they actually wanted to buy, and then drop the rest on the floor or just put it on the shelf where they are, even if it didn't belong there. I was told that this is because, in their native lands, things are scarce so they want to hold as much as they can so nobody else can take it, even if they don't plan to buy it, they are "holding" it in case they decide they do want it at the end. Either way, I'm glad I left that shithole of a city, and now I live in a 99% white suburb and the stores are clean and the people are nice.

quoted for troof! been to corpus several times -- what county is your new paradise? i'm in galveston country -- aka corpus north

microcosm --- i play basketball for exercise..at a park. black family moved in across from park -- park is now littered with their trash. food packages, shirts, socks, broken toys, chicken bones, etc, etc, etc

amazing how one household can harm a park. and city workers clean it once/week.. the nigs are relentless in their trashing of the place

and there is a 55 gal drum garbage can sitting right there. me and the can watch these animals in astonishment

[mick silver]

Why do blacks litter so much?Created by High Evolutionary on Jul 16, 2008
19 votes
Vote (http://www.topix.com/forum/afam/TINN6AHEK4BUABSTT#) Results (http://www.topix.com/forum/afam/TINN6AHEK4BUABSTT#)

You already voted!

I'm too lazy to put in trash


47% 9 votes

It's how I was brought up


31% 6 votes

I don't give a hoot


15% 3 votes

Someone will pick it up


5% 1 vote

Everything is biodegradeable - 0 votes
I likes to be messy - 0 votes

[Glass]

Flint City Council of 2015.

https://www.cityofflint.com/wp-content/uploads/Flint-Council__1399.jpg

[mick silver]

Piping as poison: the Flint water crisis and America’s toxic infrastructureShare This


Flint (http://nsnbc.me/tag/flint/)Michigan (http://nsnbc.me/tag/michigan/)Public Health (http://nsnbc.me/tag/public-health/)USA (http://nsnbc.me/tag/usa/)Washington D.C. (http://nsnbc.me/tag/washington-d-c/)


Chris Sellers (TC) : As the crisis over the water in Flint, Michigan, rolls on, we’re learning more and more about the irresponsibility and callousness of officials and politicians in charge.http://nsnbc.me/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Leaded-Water-Pipes_USA_TC_Thomashawk_flickr-CC-BY-NC-300x213.jpg (http://nsnbc.me/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Leaded-Water-Pipes_USA_TC_Thomashawk_flickr-CC-BY-NC.jpg)Up until the 1940s, as much as half of U.S. water piping from main lines was made of lead. Thomashawk/flickr, CC BY-NC (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

The mix of austerity politics, environmental racism and sheer ineptitude makes for a shocking brew, yet the physical conditions that have made it literally toxic for Flint residents are neither as exceptional nor as recent as much of the media coverage suggests.Long before that fateful decision two years ago to turn to the Flint River for the city’s drinking water, pipes made of lead had threaded throughout the city’s underbelly. Flint shares this historical legacy with thousands (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2509614/) of other cities, suburbs and towns across our country, and most likely this is not the first time, even in Flint, that these pipes have conveyed tiny amounts of the toxin into homes and children.Over the past few decades, our environmental laws and agencies have met with much success in curbing some of Americans’ exposure to lead, a damaging neurotoxin. Yet they have struggled to contain this continuing danger precisely because it is literally built into our water systems.Given that lead has been known as a poison for centuries, why did our forebears in the 19th and early 20th centuries rely on it to carry so vital a fare as drinking water? The answer to this question explains why there are many more Flints waiting to happen.Lesser evilIn the 19th and early 20th centuries, from an engineering standpoint, lead seemed superior to concrete or iron, the alternatives at the time when many municipal water systems were being built. Lead is more malleable and thus easier to bend around corners. It also lasts longer.Doctors offered virtually no resistance to this decision. After all, they themselves were turning to lead to treat diarrhea (http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hc33g8;view=1up;seq=202) or trigger abortions (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2319858/). They recognized only those symptoms of lead poisoning that by today’s standards seem extreme: the severe stomach aches, muscle weakness, kidney failure, seizures and even death that can ensue when lead in the blood rises past 60 micrograms per deciliter – 12 times the current standard (http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/p0000017/p0000017.asp).While lead pipes did occasionally produce “epidemics” this dramatic (http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.26.8.778), health officials remained far more worried about diseases like typhoid, which they knew piped-in water could prevent. As a result, as much as half (http://www.nber.org/papers/w9549.pdf) of the water pipes laid in America’s burgeoning metropolitan areas during the early 20th century were made of lead.It is also worth noting that lead pipe made up a relatively minor portion of the burgeoning flow of this toxic metal into early 20th-century factories, homes (through paint pigments) and automobiles (through leaded gasoline).Spurring it along, the lead industry (http://www.ila-lead.org/UserFiles/File/factbook/annex.pdf) grew rich and powerful. In the time before the advent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it sponsored its own health research. Some investigators even advanced a thesis that levels of lead in the blood and environment that, in retrospect, seem quite high, were “normal,” (http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=256421) a not-so-worrisome condition of modern life.In fact, the health and behavioral effects of lead from the early to the mid-20th century, as suggested by recent extrapolations from our current knowledge, were likely enormous. It’s estimated leaded pipe alone increased infant mortality by as much as 30 percent (http://www.nber.org/papers/w16480) in some cities, and led to as much as a 25 percent rise in homicides (http://scholar.harvard.edu/jfeigenbaum/publications/effects-lead-crime-rates-evidence-fromhistorical-urban-data).Federal lawsThat we have come to know so much more about what lead can do is thus an important part of the story unfolding in Flint.As investigators of lead’s effects gained greater funding and independence and honed their methods, our understanding of its subtler and longer-term effects grew.Research on children has shown behavioral disorders, learning difficulties and lowered IQ’s turning up at blood and environmental levels far below what was earlier thought safe (http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/acclpp/final_document_030712.pdf). Over the past 30 years, the CDC’s recommended blood levels for lead in the young have dropped precipitously, with no level now acknowledged as really safe.http://nsnbc.me/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Lead-blood-content_USA_Statistics_TC-300x201.jpg (http://nsnbc.me/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Lead-blood-content_USA_Statistics_TC.jpg)Click on the image to enlarge: How standards for lead in water and blood got tighter as we learned more. Chris Sellers

With greater knowledge of lead’s damaging effects, a concerted campaign against lead started in the 1970s. A ban on its usage in paint in 1978 and a phase-out from gasoline into the 1980s have had considerable impacts.
A 1974 law to control lead in drinking water had less success, however, because it focused on what got pumped into pipes rather than what showed up in people’s faucets.
After an EPA study in 1986 showed one in five of the nation’s drinking water systems (http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/doc/139024928.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&d ate=Nov+6%2C+1986&author=By+Michael+Weisskopf+Wash ington+Post+Staff+Writer&pub=The+Washington+Post+% 281974-Current+file%29&edition=&startpage=&desc=Dangerous +Amounts+of+Lead+in+Much+Drinking+Water%2C+EPA+Say s) carried more lead than considered safe, Congress passed a new Clean Water Drinking Act the same year. This law is still the basis for our current efforts to control the lead that can leach from our water pipes.Michigan Republican politicians, including Governor Rick Synder, have borne much blame for the Flint crisis – and some of them continue to invite more (https://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/gop-lead-poisoning-truthers-say-flint-water-crisis-vastly-overstated-and-might-even-be-a-hoax/). But their party was instrumental in the genesis of this act.It was Ronald Reagan who signed the bill (http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/president-signs-safe-drinking-water-act-amendments) that finally banned the use of leaded pipe and high-lead soldering. And it was George H. W. Bush’s EPA that implemented it, through a 1991 Lead and Copper Rule that required “high-risk residences” to be monitored, with further measures if 10 percent of households exceeded unsafe lead levels (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831942/) of 15 parts per billion (ppb) in their tap water.Dropping anti-leaching agentsThe Clean Water Drinking Act, along with environmental and health officials, did encourage gradual replacement of lead pipes with nontoxic materials such as PVC. But municipalities mainly turned to a chemical fix to lower lead levels, namely anti-leaching agents. Cheaper and faster-acting, these substances could largely prevent lead from entering the water from pipes, soldering and when the source of drinking water changed.The lead poisoning in Flint recalls a similar water emergency from the early 2000s in Washington, D.C. that highlights the risks of relying on anti-leaching chemicals.That crisis began in 2001 when the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) rather suddenly discovered lead levels in its testing that exceeded EPA’s action level.Events moved even more slowly than in Flint, hitting the headlines only in 2004 (http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/doc/409548147.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&da te=Jan%2031,%202004&author=David%20Nakamura&pub=Th e%20Washington%20Post&edition=&startpage=A.01&desc =Water%20in%20D.C.%20Exceeds%20EPA%20Lead%20Limit; %20Random%20Tests%20Last%20Summer%20Found%20High%2 0Levels%20in%204,000%20Homes%20Throughout%20City). Yet the dynamic was similar: those in charge sought to downplay or even suppress what the water testing showed.The fact was, however, that by 2003 the dimensions of the crisis had become unmistakable. Nearly two-thirds of the water sampled (in “high-risk” homes) exceeded the action level (http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/28168/troubled-water) – this in a water system of a half million customers, far bigger than Flint’s.As with Flint, reports from some homes ranged much higher, upwards of thousands of parts of lead per billion, surpassing levels in wastes deemed officially “hazardous (http://www.prism-magazine.org/nov04/feature_water.cfm).”In Washington, D.C., as in Flint, excess lead in faucets owed much to a decision to abandon anti-leaching agents (http://niemanreports.org/articles/investigating-washington-d-c-s-water-quality/), in this case by the Army Corps of Engineers, whose aqueduct furnished the water for WASA. Cost was part of their rationale, but apparently less so than in Flint; they and the EPA officials who vetted their decision were more worried about high levels of bacteria. What then drew out the lead from existing pipes was a new set of disinfectants also applied by the Army Corps, called chloramines (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1868000/), which had a powerful leaching effect on the lead in the system’s old pipes and joints.Spotty monitoringThere’s been one big difference between D.C.’s leaded water crisis and that of Flint: the speed and certainty with which the effects have been documented in the blood of water drinkers.In Washington, an early CDC study failed to find any link between leaded water and blood leads. It was only after the crisis was over that a congressional investigation found the agency to have withheld some critical results. A further study connected D.C.’s water crisis to higher rates of miscarriages and fetal deaths (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es4034952).In Flint, by contrast, a peer-reviewed study published just last year in the American Journal of Public Health (http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdfplus/10.2105/AJPH.2015.303003) has demonstrated a clear and unequivocal connection between lead levels in the water and those in people’s blood.What both these experiences make clear is just how risky it has become to rely on monitoring that remains spotty and on chemical treatments, which can be easily abandoned.We’d now do well to consider the ultimate cause of this type of lead poisoning: the built-in legacy of America’s last leaded century, those old, ever-dangerous conduits by which so many of us still get our drinking water.Currently, their replacement happens only sporadically, in the wake of crises, if then.From 2003, the Washington, D.C. government has spent millions digging out and replacing its toxic piping (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1868000/). The mayor of Flint has called for a similar project there (http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/21/463861880/flint-mayor-politics-and-profit-perpetuated-lead-tainted-water-crisis), yet so far, promises of support have failed to materialize.An estimated three to six million miles of lead pipes across our country still carry water (http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/investigations/toxic-taps/story/toxic-taps-lead-is-still-the-problem/), and most all of them are vulnerable to similar dangers, whether at the hands of short-sighted and prejudicial bureaucrats or politicians whose ideology or opportunism leads them to blithely dismiss well-established science.The best solution would be to replace our lead lines systematically and proactively, not just one crisis-beset city at a time. Until we do so, it’s a safe bet that more Flints lie on our horizon.Chris Sellers, The Conversation (http://theconversation.com/piping-as-poison-the-flint-water-crisis-and-americas-toxic-infrastructure-53473) – Chris Sellers is Professor of History, Stony Brook University.Share:

[cheka.]

despite the nyc media howling, flint aint special

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lead-pipes-everywhere_us_56a8e916e4b0f71799288f54

Lots Of Cities Have The Same Lead Pipes That Poisoned Flint

It's a problem that's much bigger than Flint: there are millions of lead pipes all across America, putting children at risk of stunted growth, brain damage and a lifetime of diminished potential. Just this week, residents of Sebring, a town of 8,000 in rural Ohio, were told not to touch their tap water out of lead fears similar to Flint's.

"This is a situation that has the potential to occur in however many places around the country there are lead pipes," Jerry Paulson, emeritus professor of pediatrics and environmental health at George Washington University, said in an interview. "Unless and until those pipes are removed, those communities are at some degree of risk."

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. Lead ones are mostly found in the Midwest and Northeast.

Despite the life-altering consequences of lead poisoning, there is no national plan to get rid of those pipes.

[Glass]

Flint Government discovered tainted water and concluded the water supply could remain tainted.

Solution was to ship in clean water for all government buildings. So the Government knew sooner than they admitted AND they sourced clean water for themselves. Damn the people.


As details emerge about how officials have known about the tainted water and simply allowed the public to consume it without taking action, newly released documents reveal that the state wasn’t entirely without action — for themselves.

A series of emails released (http://www.scribd.com/doc/297005752/DTMB-Facility-Notification)Thursday, obtained through a FOIA request shows that not only did officials know the water was tainted, but they took action and began trucking in water to state buildings so they would no longer have to drink it.



The emails show that after concerns were raised about the levels of TTHM in Flint water, the Snyder administration chose not to wait for the results to come back in March of 2015, and instead took action in January.

“TTHM” is “total trihalomethanes,” a group of chemical compounds that form during drinking water treatment. The compounds are produced when organic matter in natural water reacts chemically with chlorine disinfectants.

In an email (http://www.scribd.com/doc/297005752/DTMB-Facility-Notification)from the District Engineer of the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, Michael Prysby sent out a notice to several members of Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality.

“Appears certain state departments are concerned with Flint’s WQ [Water Quality]. I will return the call….” read the email. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/297005752/DTMB-Facility-Notification)
Instead of immediately notifying the citizens of the tainted water, the Snyder administration used taxpayer dollars to protect government officials only.

In a memo dated two days prior to the email mentioned above, which highlights the fact that officials knew about the water crisis well before now, the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget (DTMB) informed Flint officials that they would be protected from the dangers of the city water.

According to the memo, titled “Facility Notification: Flint Water Advisory,”
The City of Flint recently sent out the attached notice regarding violations to the drinking water standards. While the City of Flint states that corrective actions are not necessary, DTMB is in the process of providing a water cooler on each occupied floor, positioned near the water fountain, so you can choose which water to drink. The coolers will arrive today and will be provided as long as the public water does not meet treatment requirements.




A copy of the email memo is available at the link

@ Activist BlogspotA (http://www.activistpost.com/2016/01/emails-show-flint-govt-bought-clean-water-for-themselves-while-residents-drank-poison-for-a-year.html)

[madfranks]

Any people who believe that politicians work for us and not for themselves are supremely naive in this day and age.

[cheka.]

ha ha rayciss...7 of 9 city council are black

should've known

http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Flint-City-Council.jpg

[Neuro]

ha ha rayciss...7 of 9 city council are black

should've known

http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Flint-City-Council.jpg
6 out of 9 are black humans. The one on the upper left is a Gorilla in a suit!

[ShortJohnSilver]

OK so as we saw on I think ZeroHedge - Federal law requires adding phosphates into the water, which prevents the corrosion of the lead by the acid in the water, which then leads to lead being dissolved in the water. Basically, adding a chemical that is slightly a base, to offset the weak acid of the water.

Cost? Between $80 and $120 per day.

The reason that it didn't happen with the city water was that they already treated the water with phosphates before Flint got it. When they did the switchover to use this other water source - they didn't have a plan in place to add phosphates.

My guess - the water management guy was either corrupt or a diversity hire - we haven't heard much about the mgmt of the actual water supply....

[ShortJohnSilver]

Found this, Mike Glasgow, the water supervisor is on the "ACLU investigative team" youtube video

http://michiganradio.org/post/whos-blame-flints-water-crisis-virginia-tech-researcher-points-finger-mdeq#stream/0

Black dude at 1:35 - Flint Director of Public Utilities, named Howard Croft

the utilities administrator is a white guy, Michael Glasgow - at 5:10 on the same video.

Now I won't definitively say "negros in charge are the only cause of the problem".

But given how flustered Howard Croft gets in the video, my guess is, he just isn't a really smart guy and so this led to not understanding how all the pieces fit together.

[Glass]

I got the impression the problem was more widespread than just Flint. That raises a question. Are they all being incompetent in their own "Special" ways or is there something else going on? did all these affected communities suddenly stop adding the phosphates.

There is also reports that they knew for a couple years? Shipped in special water for the Govt employees. I don't know if that is a beat up. A lot of companies buy in water for the coolers. It did seem that knowledge of the problem led to the decision to buy in water. That would make it deliberate.

[cheka.]

the real deal from an insider. exactly as suspected. free water service to negroes is a right that we all enjoy paying for

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/flint-water-crisis/flint-official-resigns-after-using-racial-slur-describe-residents-water-n768511

A Michigan official that manages tax foreclosed homes for the county where Flint sits has resigned after an audio recording of him blaming the city’s water problems on "n---ers (who) don't pay their bills" surfaced online.

Phil Stair, who was a sales manager at the Genesee County Land Bank, was recorded using racial slurs by local water activist Chelsea Lyons who later posted the recordings to the website Truth Against the Machine.

In the recording, Stair is heard saying "Flint has the same problems as Detroit, f--ing n---ers don't pay their bills, believe me, I deal with them,” he said.

“They just don’t pay their bills. Well, Detroit, didn’t collect on their bills, so they charged everybody else, but — Flint — Flint had to pay their bill to Detroit.”

Lyons was worried about the Land Bank, which is tasked with the sale, rehabilitation, and demolition of tax-foreclosed homes in the county, being Flint's largest property owner to, she told MLive.com on Monday.

"The Land Bank is taking up all of the properties in Flint," Lyons told the publication. "They are pushing people out of neighborhood."

Thousands of Flint residents are facing foreclosure due to unpaid water bills — water that many are still not able to fully use.

The recordings took place over two days and began after Lyons and another woman met Stair at a local bar, she said.

Michele Wildman, the executive director of Genesee County Land Bank confirmed Stair's resignation to NBC News on Monday.

"We are deeply troubled by the offensive and inexcusable comments," she said. "This individual does not reflect our values as a company, and we are engaging with the community to restore and regain public trust," she said.
IMAGE: Corroded Flint water pipes
Corroded water pipes at a Flint, Michigan, facility. NBC News Channel - file

Flint, which is over 56 percent black, was the center of the nation’s largest water crisis that resulted in a surge of lead poisoning, especially among children.

Flint's water was contaminated with lead for at least 18 months after the city tapped the Flint River as its water source to save money. But the water was not treated to reduce corrosion and toxicity rampantly spread to all those utilizing the city’s water.

A U.S. district judge in Detroit approved a settlement in a lawsuit in March, freeing up almost $100 million in state money to tear out lead or galvanized steel water lines leading to at least 18,000 Flint homes by Jan. 1, 2020.

Several officials have faced criminal charges over the handling of the city's water.

[crimethink]

the real deal from an insider. exactly as suspected. free water service to negroes is a right that we all enjoy paying for

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/flint-water-crisis/flint-official-resigns-after-using-racial-slur-describe-residents-water-n768511

A Michigan official that manages tax foreclosed homes for the county where Flint sits has resigned after an audio recording of him blaming the city’s water problems on "n---ers (who) don't pay their bills" surfaced online.

Phil Stair, who was a sales manager at the Genesee County Land Bank, was recorded using racial slurs by local water activist Chelsea Lyons who later posted the recordings to the website Truth Against the Machine.

In the recording, Stair is heard saying "Flint has the same problems as Detroit, f--ing n---ers don't pay their bills, believe me, I deal with them,” he said.

“They just don’t pay their bills. Well, Detroit, didn’t collect on their bills, so they charged everybody else, but — Flint — Flint had to pay their bill to Detroit.”

Lyons was worried about the Land Bank, which is tasked with the sale, rehabilitation, and demolition of tax-foreclosed homes in the county, being Flint's largest property owner to, she told MLive.com on Monday.

"The Land Bank is taking up all of the properties in Flint," Lyons told the publication. "They are pushing people out of neighborhood."

Thousands of Flint residents are facing foreclosure due to unpaid water bills — water that many are still not able to fully use.

The recordings took place over two days and began after Lyons and another woman met Stair at a local bar, she said.

Michele Wildman, the executive director of Genesee County Land Bank confirmed Stair's resignation to NBC News on Monday.

"We are deeply troubled by the offensive and inexcusable comments," she said. "This individual does not reflect our values as a company, and we are engaging with the community to restore and regain public trust," she said.
IMAGE: Corroded Flint water pipes
Corroded water pipes at a Flint, Michigan, facility. NBC News Channel - file

Flint, which is over 56 percent black, was the center of the nation’s largest water crisis that resulted in a surge of lead poisoning, especially among children.

Flint's water was contaminated with lead for at least 18 months after the city tapped the Flint River as its water source to save money. But the water was not treated to reduce corrosion and toxicity rampantly spread to all those utilizing the city’s water.

A U.S. district judge in Detroit approved a settlement in a lawsuit in March, freeing up almost $100 million in state money to tear out lead or galvanized steel water lines leading to at least 18,000 Flint homes by Jan. 1, 2020.

Several officials have faced criminal charges over the handling of the city's water.

It's not as simple as little Niggers not paying their water bill. That's easily solved, BTW - turn off the valve.

The real problem is that Niggers run the city. No amount of money can fix that.