Civil Rights Commission Says Systemic Racism Contributed to Flint Water Crisis
It is hard to believe that it has been three years since the Flint Water Crisis. And while State Officials claim that the corrosion control measures are under control, no one is addressing the long term health effects—particularly with the children. Even worse, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission released its report last week after a year-long investigation to determine whether any civil rights had been violated by the contamination. In sum, many were:
The people of Flint have been subjected to unprecedented harm and hardship, much of it caused by structural and systemic discrimination and racism that have corroded your city, your institutions, and your water pipes, for generations.
If you recall, Flint's water district failed to engage in any corrosion control after switching to a different (i.e. CHEAPER) water source that was much more acidic than its previous source. Supposedly they just forgot…for multiple years…to do something that they once performed on a regular basis. Mind you, that is like anyone over the age of 25 suddenly forgetting that they had to pay rent every month. Anyways, the water district's failure to neutralize the water caused lead to leach out at a dramatic rate. And to add insult to injury, once they realized that the water contained lead levels anywhere from 25 to 1000 ppb (yes, one thousand), they flushed the lines and ruptured the biofilm. Which then sent a massive wave of Legionella bacteria across the city.
Granted, Flint isn't the only city riddled with lead-based waterlines. Check out the amazing map created by Vox on the risk of lead exposure across the United States. The use of lead-based parts in public water systems has been prohibited under the Safe Drinking Water Act since 1986, but that didn't impact the infrastructure that was already in place. For many years, lead pipes, fixtures, and solder were the primary choice for plumbing systems due to the metal's resistance to corrosion. Nonetheless, corrosion is a natural (i.e. inevitable) process, which is why water providers are legally required to treat water to make it less acidic.
That law, known as the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), was enacted by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1991. Providers are required to regularly monitor lead levels, and if they reach 15 ppb or higher, they must notify the public and offer steps they should take to protect their health. Which makes sense—when lead enters our body, it wreaks havoc. I won’t go into the details here, but if you are interested to learn more about the adverse health effects of prolonged exposure to lead, check out my previous post here. Basically, there is no safe level of lead and there is no excuse for lead in water.
If you find yourself with a few extra minutes, I recommend reading the report—or at least the Commission’s letter to the Flint Residents on Page 4.
We need to be better.
God, what a sorry state this world is in...so depressing :( How are you holding up?
I know! All things considered, I am doing alright. Basically waiting for the EPA to be gutted. How about yourself?
A Civil Rights Commission adding potential future racial tensions to the mix by conveniently (for funds?) evoking ''systemic racism'' as the main culprit of a health crisis? Do you really think the lead in water discriminates between which households' pipes it goes through? Maybe the ''white privilege'' boogeyman saw the 37.4% White, 0.5% Native American, 0.5% Asian, 1.1% from other races, and 3.9% from two or more races as only collateral damage when trying to punish its 56.6% African American target. So, if I understand correctly, it's a generational story of structural harm & hardships, according to their report. I wonder then, how they would explain the systemic discrimination in the context of the three generations back numbers (non-Hispanic Whites were 35.7% of the population in 2010, compared to 70.1% in 1970)? White flight leaving (or taking) their ''entitlements'' behind (or with them) combined with black lives flocking where it supposedly didn't even mattered back then? What I'm saying is that their ''it's been a race problem for decades'' conclusion doesn't make sense. Where is the proof of organized racist wrongdoing?
Source for stats:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint,_Michigan#Demographics
Lead does not discriminate, but demographics absolutely plays a role in the enforcement —or lack thereof—of environmental laws and regulations. Just research the makeup of populations living within a 5-mile radius of superfund sites.
This is an article I read about a year ago that I find pretty convincing. It was arguing the Flint fiasco is a case of ''Keynesian stimulus project gone wrong'':
And for the populace generational hardships: ''crony capitalism''?
http://reason.com/blog/2016/01/25/the-flint-water-crisis-is-the-result-of
To be fair, I have to admit it's the only article I've read on the topic.
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