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Essay on flint michigan water crisis
Lake huron pollution
Essay on flint michigan water crisis
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On this day, the FBI begin investigation into the Flint Water Crisis in Flint, Michigan; but what was the Flint Water Crisis? What started it? Does it still affect us today? These questions are still being asked, but some people may have the answer. The Flint Water Crisis goes all the way back in April of 2014. Flint, Michigan; during a financial emergency: decided that in order to save more money, they should temporarily change the city’s water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. It was supposed to act as a water supply until a new supply line in Lake Huron was ready. However, the Flint River did not have a very “positive” reputation. It was known for being very unclean and disgusting. Very quickly the residents started to complain that the water looked, smelled, and tasted funny. …show more content…
They found that it was highly corrosive. Virginia Tech later filed a class-action lawsuit that accused the state Department of Environmental of not cleansing the water, corresponding to the federal law. And because of most of Flint’s water supply lines are made of lead, the harmful element made its way into the people’s homes. Flint, Michigan did however switch back to Lake Huron’s water supply, but the pipes still sustained a lot of damage. This problem with Flint’s water supply is still a problem to this very day. It still affects many of the civilians who did/or still call Flint, Michigan their home. But what exactly were those effects? What was it like to live under those
... water crisis will have a long term affect on those who are consuming this water on a daily basis. Lead attack the brain and can cause coma and possibly death. Children who survive lead poisoning are left with serious health issues such as metal defects and leave a child mentally unstable. Even at lower levels of exposure symptoms such as behavioural changes such as reduced attention span, reduced intelligence quotient (IQ). Children with smaller amount of lead exposure also showed increased anti social behaviour, it also reduces educational attainment. These side effect of high lead exposure can leave children scarred for life. The water crisis in Flint Michigan car scar children for life. This could all be resolved if they could come to an agreement and replace the water pipes, allowing for cleaner and healthier water to be accessible to citizens in Flint Michigan.
Ending homelessness will be a huge challenge for Flint/Genesee County just like it will be for the rest of the U.S (Walker S & Hutchison, n.d). This is because of the economic conditions that continue to decline while communities struggle with increased unemployment, dilapidated housing and shortage of affordable housing. Flint/Genesee County faces a crisis because of the declining job markets as a result of jobs that are either closing or relocating, which include Delphi or General Motors plants, which are located in the county. Unemployment remains one of the main causes of homelessness. Other causes include lack of harmonization in the discharge policy between the county and the state, insufficient affordable and safe housing, cuts in funding, local government’s lack of commitment and decline in available private resources have also contributed greatly. 30% of all the housing stock in the City of Flint is in rundown condition.
This is why the Flint water crisis is so critical today. Because young children are being exposed to lead and they should actually be screened from the lead. The pipelines with lead in the water system and the whole community of Flint, not being able to drink water out of the facet as well as not being able to
Fact: Arizona is in a 10-year drought. Fact: The city of Phoenix has a water problem that has nothing to do with lack thereof. A hundred years ago or more humans would just drink from a river or stream, but today we need purified, cleansed, and filter water. We do, as a state have a water treatment system in place but the faculties periodically need maintenance and must be shut down to receive it. The Water Department and their puppet master Frank Fairbanks the city mangers have been playing Russian roulette with the citizen of Phoenix. The bet you ask, will the shut down of facilities due to maintenance leave the citizens of Phoenix with a contaminated water system. We learn the answer to that question on the 25 of January the city council and water department both lost that bet. The water supply was contaminated, water had to be boiled to make in safe and long showers were not advisable. How can we as voters keep this from happening again? The short answer is building another water treatment facility, for the details read on.
While it seems somewhat illogical, especially in markets, to take a precautionary approach for every single case, nature and the human interaction with it can have much more dramatic effect if not treated more carefully. Flint, Michigan was a clear case where risks were not taken very seriously and as a result many people caught diseases and died. The biggest mistake that causes these types of situations is due to the perception of risk and partisanship. Grouping cultures and political affiliations can cause many of those in power to not see true problems that stand before them. They take voluntary risks that are clear and dangerous and spin them into involuntary risks. Because of this, issues such as the Flint water crisis can easily be pushed aside as “propaganda” or as the chief and staff referred to it as “political football.” Without correctly assessing risks and hazards and being more cautious towards our perceptions towards risk, dramatic problems such as the Flint water crisis will continue to happen across the
However, there is no guarantee that there are no long-term health effects caused by the chemical since regulators do not have adequate data (The Associated Press, 2014). Those affected by the spill are the residents near Elk River who depend on the river's water supply. Many restaurants, hotels and local businesses are forced to close since residents are not able to access tap water other than for flushing toilets. Locals are forced to take cold baths and use only bottled water for hydration and cooking needs (The Associated Press, 2014).... ...
In the matter of seconds the people of Flint had their lives take a turn for the worse. Once what happened had finally been brought to the public’s attention, the word began to spread very quickly about the water that had been found to contain lead and was a clearly a threat to the people who had consumed it. People started talking about what could have been going wrong, and what could have caused this to happen. That is what lead me to this article that goes into the assumptions of Governor Snyder lying about what he knew about the water and when he found out. Even though this article is about the city of Flint, it has three different types of audiences. There is the direct audience which is obviously the people of flint. People who read this article and are able to help to are considered the indirect audience. Lastly the audience of people nationally hearing and reading about this situation. For that reason this article has relevant pictures, such as pictures of the discolored water. This helps it to be readable for all types of readers. It also gives the audience a glimpse at the current situation. In this article, the rhetorical devices of ethos, pathos and logos are used to make creditable, have an emotional connection and give evidence of the crisis.
“Water is the driving force of all nature.” Leonardo da Vince once said. Water is a huge part of life, and everything that lives requires water to make it through its days on earth. A lot of people think that the world has massive amounts of water available for use; therefore, most roll their eyes when conserving water is mentioned. After all, 71% of the earth’s surface is made up of water. However, the truth is that only 2.5% of that is clean, drinkable water, and two-thirds of that percentage is unavailable because it is stuck in ice caps and glaciers (water). The water ordeal in America is bigger than many realize, and the United States needs to begin looking at how we can solve this issue. The U.S. needs to acknowledge the impending dangers and help the states that are already suffering by putting water conservation methods in place and investing money into research for alternatives.
In 1974 Congress enacted the Safe Drinking Water Act. It set up government oversight, through the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, of surface and ground-water sources. “The EPA set up two types of regulations: (1) mandatory, enforceable maximum contaminant levels (MCLs), to be set as close to the recommended health-based goals and (2) non-mandatory, health-based maximum contaminant level goals (MCLGs).” The chemicals and contaminants to be regulated were: microbiological contaminants, metals and inorganic chemicals, volatile organic chemicals, organic compounds, and radionuclides.
The water wars began proper in 1898 when Frederick Eaton was elected as the mayor of Los Angeles. One of Eaton’s first business matters was to appoint his friend William Mulholland as the superintendent of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The two held a grand vision that Los Angeles could become one of the nation’s great cities if given the proper time and care to expand. The one factor that seriously limited growth was a lack of a water supply that could support such a massive undertaking. The solution was simple- to build an aqueduct, which would become the world’s largest water system at the time, from the Owens Valley 223 miles away. The val...
Natural Resources Defense Council (2003). Study Finds Safety of Drinking Water in U.S. Cities at Risk. NRDC reports.
"Water Pollution." Current Issues: Macmillan Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 May 2014.
... drinking water such as Bolivia and Ghana. In the documentary, Flow the experience of poor Bolivians was shown. The water corporations provided unclean drinking water that was full of pollutants. The water cost more than the poor could afford. As a result the citizens rioted and protested against the private water company.
For Nestlé Corporation during such crisis, water was still a commodity to be sold in the open market. Nestlé drained 80 million gallons of water a year from Sacramento aquifers during the time of crisis of record drought. The mayor of Sacramento city gave the rights to Nestlé for significantly less amount to bottle the water and sell it for outrageous profits while the people of California suffered tragic draught situation. Nestlé Water Company paid 65 cents per 750 gallons of water to the city of Sacramento. This means, for 215,000 gallons of water the company paid $186. This water is sold for $2.1 million USD, resulting in a difference of 10,000% of what it should cost and what people paid. People were upset because of the lack of regulation and control when a giant corporation is taking their water for minting money. There were rallies organized in Sacramento and other parts of California. The mayor of Sacramento should have been more concerned about managing the public water resources properly rather than giving corporations the opportunity to bottle it, in fact the corporations should understand the responsibility to manage water wisely. Nestlé was even given a tax break and wasn’t required to pay the commercial rate for the water which it sold back to people at humungous
Miller, Debra A. Will the World Run out of Fresh Water? Detroit: Greenhaven, 2007. Print.