Dominoes Begin To Fall In Aftermath of Flint Water Crisis That Poisoned Thousands
NYT — The first criminal charges stemming from the Flint, Mich., water crisis were filed on Wednesday, as two state officials and a city employee were accused of covering up evidence of lead contamination.
Two officials at the state Department of Environmental Quality were charged with misleading the federal Environmental Protection Agency about whether Flint was using the treatment needed to control lead levels after the city switched its water supply in 2014.
…The charges against the three defendants — Michael Prysby, a district engineer with the State Department of Environmental Quality; Stephen Busch, a district supervisor in the same department; and Michael Glasgow, the city’s utilities manager…
Any Stoolies glancing even passively at the news have already seen the headline, “Charges filed in Flint water case,” so simply regurgitating that wouldn’t add much consumable value. My job here is (kinda) to repackage and add value to interesting and/or important stories, so let’s do that.
The presidential election and subsequent Michigan primary made this more of a political “how will you fix this” issue than a “what actually happened issue.” So let’s look at what happened.
The Crisis
Flint is a poor, majority black Detroit suburb. In 2014, strapped for cash, Flint decided to stop buying water from the city of Detroit and, instead, get it from the Flint River. Because it’s cheaper.
If reading “Flint River” makes your skin crawl, your instincts are correct:
Not surprisingly, lead from aging pipes contaminated the Flint River water. City officials — either to save money or because they’re heartless scumbags — did NOT apply necessary chemicals to counteract these contaminations. Flint residents drank that contaminated water for months.
Cutbacks are necessary adjustments that make society tick. Sure. But of all the things to cutback on, they chose water? WATER!?
The results? 6,000 to 12,000 children have been drinking water with high levels of lead and may face a wide, wide range of health issues forever. The crisis also is possibly linked to an outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease that has killed 10 and sickened 77 more.
The Cover Up
Michigan attorney general Bill Schuette is conducting an investigation on the crisis and the bureaucratic failures that led to, worsened, and followed it. The investigation is reviewing emails and other documents that show “a cascading series of failures at every level of government,” the NYT wrote.
What specifically were some of those failures?
The charges against the three defendants… included tampering with evidence contained in reports on lead levels in city water, and the two state officials were also charged with conspiracy to tamper with evidence.
Complete scumbags. But that wasn’t it:
Among other things, the workers were accused of distorting the results by directing residents to run their water before it was tested and failing to collect samples from some houses they were required to test. That had the effect of making the levels of lead in the water supply appear far less dangerous than they were, and falsely reassured officials who could have intervened months earlier, as well as residents, that the water was safe.
While this is all awful, it’s unfortunately not it. Not even close. “These charges are only the beginning,” Schuette added. “There will be more to come — that I can guarantee you.”
The Aftermath
The original fuck ups? That’s largely people not doing their jobs. People being lazy. People either not aware of the consequences of their neglect or not caring.
The aftermath following those fuck ups? That’s where true colors bleed through. Being lazy, neglectful, or incapable of properly doing your job is one thing. 99% of us fall under that category to some degree. But having those shortcomings affect the health of thousands of people, and then stringing together a web of cover ups to protect your own ass while deepening the negative impact on those affected? Shame on you. SHAME!
These three are the first to pay. Many more will follow. The cover ups will be as interesting and as punishable as the crimes. Somebody should probably hire Julia Roberts and make a movie about it.
