Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Originally Posted By: MrHorspwer
Originally Posted By: javacontour
I guess I'm trying to decide why a city water issue would fall on the governor?
Why not take the blame all the way to the top, to the president?
After all, if it's good to blame the governor for a local government failure, it's probably better to blame the president, right?
Either course of action makes about as much sense.
Why not hold the leadership in Flint responsible for their water?
Flint has been under the direction of an "emergency manager" who is appointed by the governor. He isn't elected by the people of Flint, nor is he appointed by Flint local government. He is hand selected by the governor and placed into this position (there have been a couple different EMs who have been involved the Flint water situation).
On more than one occasion, the EM overrode the wishes of the Flint City Council (who are elected) to stop obtaining water from the Flint River or reconnect to Detroit water. In one instance, the city council voted 7-1 to outright reconnect to Detroit. The EM decided otherwise, a power given to him by... the governor.
Flint's decision to move away from Detroit water was initially supported by the EM at the time and at every juncture and failure, the EM has maintained that they should stay the course and water drawn from the Flint River is a high quality and safe water (even when it obviously wasn't).
That's why the governor should be held accountable.
Were there more failures than just the head-in-the-sand mentality and actions of the EM? Absolutely, but you wanted to know why a city water issue would fall on the governor? The EM is only beholden to the governor, not local government in Flint (or the president, since you brought it up).
What you're saying here flies in the face of what I posted previously. The water coming out of the Flint river doesn't contain Lead. The problem is, it has a low pH, which makes it pick up the Lead traveling through the underground pipes. The problem does not exist for all of Flint, it is only in some neighborhoods where Lead pipes are used.
First and foremost, lead was never an issue *for anybody* in Flint when water was coming from Detroit. Part of the responsibility of Flint's water authority is keeping the pH in check. If they didn't know that was important, they do now. Flint has also payed a consulting firm (Veolia North America) millions during this process. Firms that are supposed to be experts on this type of thing. That's what they're being paid for. Nobody foresaw this? Again, Detroit water didn't have this issue. Also, Detroit has an old infrastructure that used similar construction methods with no lead issues.
Beyond the lead, Flint water has had issues with fecal coliform (no less than four separate boil water advisories) and ultra-high TTHM levels (one quarter was so high, even if they had none for the rest of the year, the numbers would still be above maximum yearly average) since they began pulling water from the Flint River. Lead is just the latest in a long line of issues with this project.
