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What Really Poisoned The Water In Flint, Michigan

What Really Poisoned The Water In Flint, Michigan

The mantra of every Koch-headed, right-wing politico is that government should be run like a business, always focused on cutting costs.

Welcome to Flint, Michigan. This impoverished, mostly African-American city has indeed been run like a private corporation since Republican Gov. Rick Snyder appointed his “emergency manager” to seize control of Flint’s heavily indebted local government. Snyder’s coup d’etat usurped the people’s democratic voice and effectively imposed a corporate-style autocracy over them, run by his unelected CEO-like manager who answers only to Snyder.

Flint’s emergency manager holds authoritarian budgetary power and is focused not on serving the people but on the bottom line. His mandate from the governor was to slash costs ruthlessly, so bankers and other holders of the city’s debt could be paid off. Snyder was delighted that his appointed czar proved to be an enthusiastic slasher, including a cleaver move in 2014 to cut a couple million dollars from the budget by shifting the source of the city’s drinking water from Lake Huron to the Flint River.

Sure, some scaredy-cats worried about contaminants in that river, but Snyder’s health officials pooh-poohed them — and, besides, the beauty of one-man rule is that you can ignore the people and take bold, decisive action. That’s what corporate CEOs do, and even if there is some collateral damage, it’s the bottom line that matters.

But — oops — the bottom line of thinking you can simply apply corporate methods and ethics to public responsibilities is that very bad things can happen. In this case, Flint’s water supply is contaminated with lead, its entire infrastructure of water pipes needs to be replaced, thousands of the city’s children may be permanently impaired by lead poisoning … and Snyder’s name is mud.

Not that Gov. Snyder personally dumped lead and other toxins into Flint’s water, but by dumping his small-minded, budget-whacking policies on the people of this largely poor, largely minority community, he did, in fact, poison them. Worse, when Flint’s families immediately and loudly complained that their tap water was oddly colored, nasty tasting, stinky and causing rashes on their children, Snyder and his top officials did nothing. Nothing!

For a year and a half, the governor’s team denied there was a problem, even when residents showed jugs of the brownish liquid to the media and to officials. It’s a myth, claimed the authorities, accusing locals of “trying to turn (the issue) into a political football” and asserting that the complainers were just being finicky about the aesthetics of their water.

Aesthetics? A General Motors factory in Flint had to quit using the water because it was corroding metal engine parts, and a hospital stopped using the water because it was damaging its medical instruments!

Finally, after out-of-state toxicity experts confirmed that Flint’s water constitutes a major public health emergency, Snyder and crew were forced to switch from denial to damage control. He has since apologized to Flint residents and is trying to save face (and his job) by promising to “fix” the mess he made.

The mess is not just in the water, however. Flint reveals that there is a much deeper contamination poisoning our country’s political morals: namely, an insidious right-wing belief that poor people (particularly people of color who are poor) are underserving moochers whose misfortunes can be ignored — even when their misfortunes stem directly from the discriminatory practices of slippery elites like Snyder. This example in Flint proves once again that government can’t be run like a corporation, as a corporation exists to profit only a few, not serve the many. Despite the shallow sloganeering of ideologues, government has to be run … well, like a government.

To find out more about Jim Hightower, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2016 CREATORS.COM

Photo: Ariana Hawk, 25, is the single mother of three children under the age of ten living in Flint, Mich., with her mother. She bathes her middle child Sincere Smith, 2, who is unable to bathe with tap water. He is suffering from a breakouts all over his body that his mother believes are a reaction to the contaminated water. She must use bottled water to wash him daily. (Regina H. Boone/Detroit Free Press/TNS)

The Poor Of Flint, Mich., Left Under The Cover Of Darkness

The Poor Of Flint, Mich., Left Under The Cover Of Darkness

“Them that’s got shall get. Them that’s not shall lose” — Billie Holiday

It was in April of 2014 that the water turned bad. Residents of Flint, Mich., reported that the stuff smelled. It was yellowish brown. You drank it and your hair fell out. Or you developed a rash. Or you were nauseous.

Again, this was in April.

According to a computer search, it was not until the following January that the Detroit Free Press, just an hour down the road, took note. It wasn’t until March that The New York Times began reporting the story. It wasn’t until Jan. 5th of this year — almost two years later — that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder saw fit to declare a state of emergency and nine days afterward that he asked President Obama to declare the city a disaster area.

And it is not until today that yours truly is writing about it.

There are many points of outrage in the story of Flint’s ill-fated attempt to save money by switching its water supply to the filthy Flint River. You could focus on findings that the river water contained fecal coliform bacteria. Or on the fact that chemicals used to kill said bacteria apparently created new contaminations of their own. Or on reports that much of the problem could have been avoided by adding an anti-corrosive agent to the water for about $100 a day, but the city declined.

You could fix your anger on city officials who continued to insist, long after it was obviously untrue, that the water was safe. Or on state regulators who said the same even after a group of doctors reported finding elevated levels of lead in the blood of Flint’s children. The World Health Organization says lead poisoning in kids can lead to brain damage, shortened attention span, antisocial behavior, hypertension, and damage to the reproductive organs, among other things. The effects are irreversible.

So yes, this slow-rolling disaster offers many causes for anger. But one of them is the very fact that it has been a slow-rolling disaster.

It is inconceivable that it would take so long for public officials to respond or media to notice if the water became unsafe in New York, Miami, Charlotte, Chicago, Atlanta or L.A. But Flint is none of those places. Rather, it is a hard-luck, hardscrabble, post-industrial wasteland, a shrinking town of 100,000 people, with a poverty rate of 41 percent and per capita income of less than $15,000. It doesn’t even have a grocery store.

In 2005, when New Orleans drowned, some of us seemed surprised that there were Americans too desperately poor to escape the path of a monster storm. There followed much media hand-wringing over the failure to report so fundamental a story as the continued existence of poverty.

Yet here we are over a decade later, and once again it takes a calamity to make poor people visible. We saw the same pattern in Ferguson, Mo., where it wasn’t until a teenager died and weeks of urban unrest followed that we learned how that city was pimping its poor.

One is reminded of what happens when there’s a blackout: Windows are broken and merchandise taken. No one is surprised by this. Under cover of darkness, people are seldom their best selves. Under cover of darkness, terrible deeds are often done.

Well, news media have left the poor under cover of darkness. Our light shines on politics, the middle class, technological gimmickry and celebrity gossip, yes. But on those the Bible calls “the least of these”? Not so much. Our inattention frees politicians to ignore them as well. And all of a sudden you look up and it’s been almost two years since 100,000 people had safe water to drink and we’re just beginning to notice.

That’s unconscionable. News media’s mission, it is often said, is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Where the plight of the nation’s poor is concerned, we seem to have failed on both counts.

(Leonard Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla., 33132. Readers may contact him via e-mail at lpitts@miamiherald.com.)

Photo: Michigan National Guard Staff Sergeant William Phillips (L) assists a Flint resident with bottled water at a fire station in Flint, Michigan January 13, 2016. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

Water Conservation Has Costly, And Stinky, Downsides

Water Conservation Has Costly, And Stinky, Downsides

By Matt Stevens, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

LOS ANGELES — Under orders to slash water use amid a historic drought, cities and towns across California saved about 75 billion gallons in July, eclipsing Gov. Jerry Brown’s once-daunting order for a 25 percent reduction.

But, in a paradox of conservation, water agencies say the unprecedented savings — 31 percent in July over July 2013 — are causing or compounding a slew of problems.

Sanitation districts are yanking tree roots out of manholes and stepping up maintenance on their pipes to prevent corrosion and the spread of odors. And when people use less potable water, officials say, there’s less wastewater available to recycle.

Water suppliers, meanwhile, say the dramatic decrease in consumption has created multimillion-dollar revenue shortfalls.

Experts and industry leaders say this represents a shift into a new stage of the four-year drought.

“It’s unintended consequences,” said George Tchobanoglous, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Davis. “We never thought (conservation) was a bad thing. Every citizen thinks he or she is saving mankind, and I’m sympathetic, but it just so happens that our basic infrastructure was not designed with that in mind.”

Sanitation districts have worried about sewer spills for years, but officials say they have had to become especially vigilant in recent months as water use has plummeted.

Shorter showers, more efficient toilets and other reductions in indoor water usage have meant less wastewater flowing through sewer pipes, sanitation officials say. With less flow to flush the solids down the system, those solids are collecting and can eventually damage pipes.

“The costs that we’re going to face due to corroding pipes is going to be astronomical,” Tchobanoglous said. “It’ll dwarf everything else.”

In Sacramento, the sewer system is relatively flat, meaning that gravity cannot help push solids through it. Operators are reporting increased debris and more grease in pipelines, said Christoph Dobson, director of policy and planning at the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District.

The collection of those solids heightens the possibility of a stoppage in small pipes and increases the amount of maintenance that sanitation districts must perform, Dobson said.

“We do know that we’re seeing lower flows, and we do attribute the problems … to those lower flows,” he said.

In San Francisco, officials also say foul odors have become noticeable in low-lying and flat areas of the city where gravity cannot help push solids through the system.

Sanitation officials in Orange County say that although their system is generally holding up well, they have had to flush and clean the pipes more often. Since the wastewater ends up with a higher concentration of solids, the pumps that lift and move the water could get worn down faster, officials said.

“Did we know the drought was coming and it would cause these things? Not necessarily,” said Rob Thompson, director of engineering at the Orange County Sanitation District. “Nobody likes to talk about sewage. Sewage isn’t sexy.”

Los Angeles has not experienced many of the problems plaguing its neighbors because its system is designed to move wastewater by gravity, and officials say that with 4 million people using water, there’s always enough flow.

Experts said conservation has certainly brought challenges, but pointed out that in Australia — where water use plunged during a drought that lasted more than a decade — there’s no evidence of wastewater treatment problems.

“My view is that any such consequences can be managed if and when they arise, but this should not be an excuse to not implement efficiency measures,” said Lester Snow, a former head of the Department of Water Resources who now directs the California Water Foundation.

The reduced use of drinkable water also means there is less available for recycling _ at a time when cities have been placing a greater emphasis on that form of water conservation, experts say.

Orange County is home to the largest potable reuse facility in the world. Because of a recent facility expansion and the high levels of conservation, the Groundwater Replenishment System now requires wastewater to be diverted from Huntington Beach to Fountain Valley in order to keep the facility at 95 percent capacity.

“We’re hoping that water demands will remain fairly consistent inside the house,” said Mike Markus, general manager of the Orange County Water District.

Lower water demands “potentially could be a problem for us because we built a facility of a certain size and we want to make those assets work for us,” Marcus added. “We don’t want to have stranded assets.”

At the Leucadia Wastewater District in northern San Diego County, officials have run into a different problem.

Without normal levels of outdoor irrigation, tree roots desperately in search of water have invaded sewer pipes and grown there over time.

Last December, when workers investigated a sewer spill, they found a 4- to 6-inch-wide tree root inside a pipe. Just 16 months earlier, an inspection found the sewer line “clean and clear,” said Paul Bushee, general manager of the Leucadia Wastewater District.

“We’re seeing more and more of that,” he said. “It was a learning experience for us. We didn’t think a root could go from nothing to this larger-diameter root in a year and four months.”

But the consequences of conservation have also been felt outside sanitation districts. Potable water providers say conservation is stripping them of crucial revenue.

For example, the Yorba Linda Water District is under state orders to slash its water consumption 36 percent over the next several months. A cut that size is projected to reduce revenue about $9 million over the course of the current fiscal year, district spokesman Damon Micalizzi said.

The water district had been planning to ask for a gradual rate increase over five years, but the state’s conservation mandate forced the district to speed up that process and ask for more money sooner, Micalizzi said.

Under the latest rate proposal, the basic service charge assigned to most single-family residential customers would jump to about $41 on Oct. 1 from $16.77, Micalizzi said.

“We’re feeling the pain right now,” he said. “To have this dramatic jump and the backlash that obviously comes with it is very, very daunting.”

The Santa Margarita Water District also passed a water rate increase in March that will help offset $6.8 million in lost revenue this fiscal year. Goleta Water District officials said they implemented a “drought surcharge” in July to help recover $10 million in projected revenue loss.

“It’s a fact that the amount of revenue (water districts are) collecting is going down,” said Heather Cooley, water program director of the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit that conducts research on natural resources.

Conservation, she continued, “puts water districts in a pinch in the short term, but in the long term it’s a benefit for all of us.”

Photo: Hugo Gonzalez, a Field Services Technician with Leucadia Wastewater District, prepares a robotic camera to search for tree roots in an 8-inch-diameter sewer line beneath a residential street on Aug. 25, 2015 in Carlsbad, Calif. With increasing frequency, the severe lack of rain has caused thirsty landscape tree roots to inundate underground sewer pipelines, and in the worst case to cause a blockage. (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Need Clean Water? Take A Page From Researcher’s Book

Need Clean Water? Take A Page From Researcher’s Book

By Eleanor Chute, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)

PITTSBURGH — Can bacteria-killing filter paper packaged in the form of a convenient book help people around the globe gain access to clean drinking water?

That’s the hope of Theresa Dankovich, postdoctoral research associate in the civil and environmental engineering department of Carnegie Mellon University, who has developed “The Drinkable Book.”

In the works since 2008 while Dankovich was a doctoral student at McGill University in Montreal, the book generated buzz and national and international publicity at the American Chemical Society meeting in Boston last week.

The first page makes the mission clear: “The water in your village may contain deadly diseases but each page of this book is a paper water filter that will make it safe to drink.”

According to the nonprofit water.org, 840,000 people die each year of water-related disease, and one in nine people lack access to safe water. The filter is designed to eliminate water-borne bacteria; it killed 99.9999 percent in lab tests.

In the prototype, each page has two filters, separated by perforations. The top has a message in English; the bottom the same message in the local language. Users can tear off a filter, place it in a holder above a clean container and then pour water into the filter. The optimum holder design for effective and easy use is still being developed by University of Cincinnati design graduate Luke Hydrick, now with Continuum, a design consultancy.

The length of time for water to filter through to the container varies, depending on how much debris is in the water. Each page can filter up to 26 gallons.

Dankovich initially was working on making antibacterial paper, which has many applications such as food packaging and medical masks.

“I just was intrigued by the idea of just a cheap water filter. I wasn’t necessarily thinking of any particular market. I was trying to focus on the science. Then I started to read more about the water crisis. I thought this could be a great method to clean water for a lot of people out there,” she said.

In 2013, she did field testing in Limpopo, South Africa. The following year, she did testing in northern Ghana and this past summer in Bangladesh. People from a nonprofit partner organization, WATERisLIFE, have done testing in Haiti and Kenya.

More than a year ago, Dankovich formed a nonprofit called pAge Drinking Paper. The idea for turning the drinking paper into a book came from a New York designer, Brian Gartside, then at DDB NY and now at Deutsch, after he read about her filter paper work.

With help from CMU students, Dankovich makes her filters by hand. She begins with big sheets of filter paper that are thick — almost like cardboard — and chemically treated so they don’t fall apart when water is poured on then.

She then treats the paper with silver nanoparticles, which turn the paper a shade of orange. The nanoparticles are the key to eliminating bacteria.

A silver salt is applied to the paper, and the paper is baked for 10 or 15 minutes in a commercial oven at a Friendship church. She takes the sheet home, pours distilled water on it to take off excess material, hand blots it to soak up extra water and lets it dry in her basement. Then the papers are sent out for binding and printing using food-grade ink on a letterpress.

Dankovich and her students also are experimenting with copper nanoparticles, which can have a similar anti-bacterial effect. Copper is 100 times cheaper than silver.

She figures about 2,000 pages — each with two filters — have been made so far. Some have been used to make about 50 books. The challenge is finding ways to bring production up to scale. The hope is that ultimately each filter could be manufactured for 10 cents or less.

“Poverty just often reduces people’s ability to buy basic things. Water purification sometimes can be a luxury for people, which sounds horrible, but that’s just how it is,” she said.

The Drinkable Book isn’t ready to go on the market yet. More testing, including trials by users, lies ahead. A campaign on the Internet site Indiegogo seeks $30,000 for pilot scale tests in two villages for about a month. With $150,000, the technology could be tried in about a dozen villages, each for a month or two. Government research grants also are being sought.

“I have gotten a lot of emails requesting books. I wish I could, but we’re not quite there yet,” she said.

Photo: Carnegie Mellon University researcher Theresa Dankovich is developing filter paper treated with silver nanoparticles that can eliminate bacteria when used to filter water. One application is a book made with pages of the filter paper that can be ripped from the book to filter water as needed. (Bob Donaldson/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)