To: State Department of Environmental Quality
1. Background Description
Flint is a city located inside Michigan State. In the past few decades, it was fueled by automobile industry. However, due to the depression in auto industry, companies such as General Motors had close their door of plants, which led to a high rate of unemployment and crime rate as well. Later on, in 2011, the state took budgetary control over the whole city because it was in a financial emergency. Therefore, everything started from the decision made by state officials, not the mayor. [1]
In order to save for water expense, government officials had decided to switch water source from Lake Huron, that had been used by citizens of Flint for decades, to Flint River in 2014. This is the beginning of the story. However, the Flint River was seriously polluted by road sault and a corrosion inhibitor was not constructed in attempt to save more money, according to Marc Edwards, an expert on water treatment from Virginia Tech. Citizens sooner realized …show more content…
Several protest has been taken by citizens of Michigan State asking for replacing pipe, arresting Gov. Rick Snyder and etc. In addition, people have started to believe that it is ‘environment racism’ that cause this issue. Without appropriate solution, large chaos may outbreak. ‘Environmental Racism + Indifference = Lead in the Water & Blood,’ NAACP President and CEO Cornell Brooks tweeted. [6]
Even though government officials of Flint had decided to switch back to Detroit water system, it was too late. The pipeline has been severely ‘polluted’ by water from Flint River. A high concentration of lead was still found after switching water source. Besides, the polluted water also affected local economy. For example, General Motors announced that they would stop using water from Flint River since their equipment had been found being damaged by it.
3. Possible