Describe Michigan Water Fiasco - Research Assignment Paper

MICHIGAN WATER FIASCO
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The Flint water fiasco began way back in March of 2013. At this point, the Flint City Council was in receivership as it was experiencing a funds crisis. Initially, the Flint City Council had an agreement with Detroit City to source clean and safe water from Detroit. The water was pumped from Lake Huron and piped all the way to the Flint city. However, as the County Council went into receivership, funds became scarce. As a result, the City Council voted to opt out of the agreement with Detroit. This was due to the high costs of pumping that ran into millions of dollars. The City Council agreed by a majority of votes that they should connect to a new and cheaper pipeline, preferably the Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline.
Due to contravention of the agreement, Detroit City cut off further water supply to the city of Flint. However, the new pipeline that the Flint City Council was to utilize had not been completed. The Karegnondi pipeline was to be ready in three years; a situation that was not so pleasing to the Flint City Council. The County Council had to find an alternative solution prior to the completion of the pipeline. They, therefore, agreed to renovate their own water processing plant at the Flint River. In April of 2014, the alternative water supply route was opened. The whole planning switching process was actuated by Darnell Early, the Michigan state-appointed Emergency Manager (Pearce, 2016).
However, water from the Flint River was full of organic matter that allowed the hazardous bacterial strains of Escherichia coli to thrive. To counter this problem, the Flint authority chlorinated the water. However, more problems started coming up when it was discovered that water reaching into homes had some bad taste as well as unpleasant color. This prompted more research, the most conclusive one carried out by the Virginia Tech University. The research indicated that there were frightening levels of lead in the water, far more dangerous than those observed in Detroit water from Lake Huron. The lead deposit found in the water was as a result of the action of chlorine in the water on metallic pipes; this caused the release of lead into the water, which posed a hazardous risk on the consumers. The risk was more pronounced in children, where lead deposits were confirmed in their systems in hospitals around the Flint city. The problem posed greater risks from then onwa...