Ten hard truths about the Flint water atrocity

I was asking myself the same. Probably the additive is phosphoric acid, see the lead pipes infos of Northern Ireland Water and Compound Chem about Flint’s water supply.

6 Likes

that was in 2015. It is 2016. Story says “again”.

Arguably terrible in the first place, but I am asking about the ‘recently’ aspect of it.

2 Likes

Could be just something alkaline to adjust the pH.

Or could be stannous chloride, according to this patent: US6200529B1 - Corrosion inhibition method suitable for use in potable water - Google Patents

Or could be a phosphate, as in Toronto. http://www.richmondhill.ca/subpage.asp?pageid=cs_toronto_water_additive

In the case of Flint, it is apparently the phosphate route, and the corrosion seems to be caused by chloride ions. Chlorides are a royal bitch when it comes to metals.

Phosphate passivates the pipes and inhibits corrosion.

The lead itself can originate either from ancient lead pipes, or from solder joints, or can leach together with zinc from leaded brass.

Too few people have corrosion as a hobby and this is the result.

13 Likes

Yeah, while I certainly read:

It’s more than a bit disingenuous of you to claim that state offices receiving “cooler and bottled water” is in any way equivalent to what was done for the GM plant. Using this to tar Moore with your broad brush is like claiming that because I installed a water cooler in my (fictional) house in Flint house and only drank from it or bottled water, that Moore was promulgating a falsehood. Instead, as you are well aware because you RTFA (right?), the injustice is in the spending of $400,000 to connect GM back to the Detroit-treated, Lake Huron-sourced water. “Got the clean water” clearly means was connected back to the safe municipal supply. If you have evidence this happened elsewhere, we are all ears.

The reason for the special treatment that GM received, the water being corrosive, is of course the final irony. Can’t have car parts corroding, ya know, never mind the fucking lead pipes.

19 Likes

Fair enough, I dislike the delivery but if he is what brings the most aid than that is what matters most.

2 Likes

And if he brings in the second most aid in this… is it a race?

competition and compassion are rather mutually exclusive, and you choose each moment.

3 Likes

Is there a difference between “greed” and “evil”?

2 Likes

Greed has a larger budget for fancy dress; evil has a larger budget for uniforms.

15 Likes

They do, however, have a very good working relationship.

12 Likes

at this point, i bet that’s a lot cheaper than the re-construction of the water infrastructure and the expense of the national guard shipping in bottled water from now until forever.

unfortunately, like the housing bailout – which would have been better directed at individual homeowners – any money spent will probably be “trickle down”. directed to company after company trying (and probably failing) to somehow fix the problem.

i can’t even imagine how much nestle must be making off this fiasco.

2 Likes

that makes a ton of sense. i couldn’t understand the direct financial advantage for synder before.

i think he suggested using michigan’s money – and rolling back the tax cuts which were enacted – but allowing fema to run things. that makes perfect sense to me because, really, what other agency is equipped for the kind of relief that’s necessary?

2 Likes

If local taxes pay for the water supply, isn’t that government? Or is it only government when it’s big and bad and Washington?

1 Like

Sure, it’s government. But it’s local, municipal government. Whether each house is responsible for its own well, or they band together to pay for a community water supply - I’ve had both - it’s a local responsibility and locally paid for.

But that’s off-reserve. It’s only on a reserve that “big bad Ottawa” gets blamed instead.

(Reminder: We’re talking about small rural/remote communities here, not a city like Flint.)

4 Likes

I never “claimed” such a thing. I pointed out that the government was providing themselves with clean drinking water - specifically because of the concerns about the tap water - while it provided clean water to GM. This contradicts Moore’s typical hyperbole.

This is false because the government didn’t provide you with clean water. You did. So, no, it’s nothing like that.

You’re misquoting the quote. The quote is, “there was one—and only one—address in Flint that got clean water.”

This is factually incorrect. The government was, indeed, providing more than one address with clean water. I only pointed out that it was factually incorrect and that Moore has a long history of stating factually incorrect things. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that Moore is a bigger problem than corrupt government officials and their corporate cronies.

he has a habit of saying inaccurate yet true things. Nitpicking doesn’t unpoison the well.

10 Likes

Jesus H. Tap-dancing Christ WTAF?

When does complicity in brain damage, destruction of health and death transcend mere malfeasance and murder and become treason? WTF kind of corruption of office would that take exactly?

And to anyone trying to minimise this in any way, I’d suggest you take a long look in the mirror but we both know that’s not going to happen. But from time to time you will glance in one, and at least a small part of yourself that looks back is going to hate you.

6 Likes

That is an excellent way to put it!

5 Likes

Excellent synopsis here: https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/science-based-medicine-versus-the-flint-water-crisis/

1 Like

I can’t disagree with this, but then, why quote him? Surely there are better sources which provide accurate facts to make important points.

I just think reporting facts in defense of an argument requires accuracy and accuracy requires nitpicking. I think real journalists nitpick. And I think writers writing things I agree with shouldn’t be immune to criticism for lazy writing.

3 Likes

Hold up a sec - In the open letter, he implies he was in flint, and in the above he straight out claims he lives there. Does he? As recently as mid-2014, he didn’t even own any property in Flint that I can recall, and AFAIK, he lives between his Manhattan Penthouse, and a very expensive part of Traverse city, about 200 miles away from flint, right near Lake Torch. And I’m pretty sure he was in Manhattan recently, he certainly wasn’t in flint when the crisis broke.

Eh, whatever, I guess. Fuck it, as long as he’s helping out - actually helping out, not just doing his usual pretentious open letter bullshit - then he can claim to live on the fucking moon for all I care. If letting him push his “Just an average guy from flint” brand image more in preparation for his new movie gets his arse moving to help people, then Hand me a megaphone, I’ll shout it from the rooftops on his behalf, just to give him more time to help.