In the meantime, 88 Detroit Public Schools are closed today due to a sick out from the teachers due to concerns they have for the safety of their schools and students. His “emergency management” hasn’t done such a great job there either.
A few additional factoids.
The City of Flint switched from the City of Detroit water supply because it was deemed to be too expensive. The plan was to switch to a new pipeline coming south from Lake Huron, but the pipeline was not (and is not yet) completed. The connection to the Flint River was to be a stop-gap measure.
The City of Detroit water system is a regional water supply that, until recently, was controlled by the City of Detroit Water and Sewerage Board (“DWSB”). A study by a national consulting firm recommended that 75-80% of its employees were unnecessary. DWSB consistently raised water rates approximately 10% EVERY year. Many cities in SE Michigan are looking at alternatives to Detroit water. The various municipalities have complained for years about the lack of representation on the DWSB. One of the outcomes of the City of Detroit bankruptcy was the change to regional representation on the DWSB.
BTW - Detroit water, for the most part, is drawn from southern Lake Huron, a few miles north of the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron/Sarnia and piped down to the City processing plants. Very little water is taken from the Detroit River.
Oh look, we now have deniers: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2016/01/brooks_patterson_bill_ballenge.html#incart_river_index
L Brooks Patterson is really a despicable human being… and not just for this. (Some of his past comments about Detroit are really mind-boggling.)
It would have been a lot cheaper in the end than the cost of poisoning a city full of children. Also I question the claim that Detroit was raising water prices 10% per year.
I, too, would like to see evidence for the 10% rate hike.
I am on Detroit water. Yes, my rates went up quite a bit in 2015 but before that I don’t recall a big hike.
My community is on the Detroit system and I would be happy to provide you with copies of my water bills for the last 3 years or so. Upon further checking, the annual increase since 2000 have been over 8% ever year but two. That is from DWSB’s own reports.
2015-16 rate hikes - http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2015/03/11/detroit-water-sewer-rate-increases/70166240/
2014 Article from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/26/business/detroit-plan-to-profit-on-water-looks-half-empty.html?_r=0
Detroit Free Press article from August 9, 2012 re: job reductions:
With fresh evidence of a bloated bureaucracy in Detroit’s Water and Sewerage Department, Mayor Dave Bing and the Detroit Water Board embraced a consultant’s plan Wednesday that calls for eliminating four of every five employees over five years. The department, which has prompted suburban outrage by doubling rates in the past decade for its 4.3 million customers, plans to outsource billing, maintenance and other functions and hopes to save $900 million.
Don’t expect rebates or lower rates going forward, officials said Wednesday, but the plan aims to slow the rate hikes, which have averaged 8% annually in recent years.
My water bill is divided more than 50 percent towards sewerage, which is a huge cost as far as keeping up with the infrastructure, much of which is quite old. I have no gripe about paying for a good water system. I can control how much or how little I use.
The more that municipalities try to get away from using the Detroit Water system, the more it costs for everyone else, because they still have to maintain the same amount of infrastructure.
I use Detroit water and sewage as well. Have my rates gone up? Yes, they have. Is my water safe to drink? Yes, it is - and it tastes great, too.
I can understand WHY Flint was looking for a cheaper water supply. However, what they’ve gotten so far is a travesty - water that’s neither cheaper nor safer then (or as safe as!) their old supply.
Back in 2011, the water in the Flint River was evaluated for possible use as a source for the city’s drinking water. At that time, the results indicated that the Flint River water would need to be treated to reduce corrosiveness. Those treatments were never put in place.
I am in no way defending what has happened in Flint. I was trying to provide some historical perspective, particularly for those outside of SE Michigan, on why the transfer took place.
Sorry UMDAD - I misinterpreted your intent! This water thing makes me so mad.
No problem. Major screwup by all involved.
I still can’t get over that in 2012 the DWSB was supposed to reduce their workforce by 80%. Talk about featherbedding - eliminating four of every five employees over five years!
This is my favorite line from the 8/9/12 Free Press article -
All job descriptions would be rewritten to be much broader than current ones to allow more flexibility. Brian Hurding, vice president of EMA, the firm that did the study, said the department had 257 job classifications, including “horseshoer.” “We didn’t find any horses,” Hurding said. “That’s the strangest job classification I’ve ever seen.” He noted later that the person in the job also was classified as a welder, which was his main job. Under the reorganization plan, the number of job classifications would fall to 31.
Did anyone watch our President’s speech today to the UAW in Detroit? I found it very upbeat and inspirational. Made me proud to be a Michigander and an American.
I cannot fathom how this situation was allowed to occur. I read the piece in the NY Times today and really I am quite disturbed by it…so I can vividly imagine that the people directly impacted --the citizens of Flint-- are seething.
I read the mayor’s recent comments. The story said she was just elected in November 2015, so I looked to see whom was her predecessor, thinking the he or she must have rung the alarm bell months ago. WRONG! The former mayor, a Rhodes Scholar mind you, attested to the safety of the water and actually took a swallow in front of TV cameras. Is it any wonder why people are so cynical and mistrust “experts” when it comes to municipal services?
The mayors and the city council members had no power. The power was in the hands of unelected emergency managers appointed by Governor Snyder. When the then-mayor and the then-city council voted to go back to Detroit water, the unelected manager overruled them. It makes no sense to blame a powerless mayor and a powerless city council. Moreover, there are claims that one of the emergency managers threatened the city council that if they didn’t play nice, Flint would remain under emergency management indefinitely.
It’s worthwhile to remark, also, that Snyder and his legislature instituted the emergency manager program. It was overturned in a public referendum. Snyder and his minions rammed it through again, this time with a technicality so that it couldn’t be overturned.
Maybe democracy isn’t so bad after all. If a mayor and city council poisoned their city, at least they could be voted out and replaced by people who weren’t cartoon villain incompetent. Flint couldn’t get rid of the emergency managers.
What our President had to say about Flint in his (great) speech today in Detroit: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/flint-water-crisis/obama-i-would-be-beside-myself-if-my-kids-lived-n500676
Pardon me if this has been mentioned already, but I though this was a nice touch. Cher (and Glacier) is responsible for 5 semi-trucks of bottled arriving in the Flint area for distribution to families:
The more I read about this the angrier I become! Someone should face criminal charges! Apparently Erin Brockavich has been screaming about this since September, the doctor sounded the alarm in 2014!
http://mashable.com/2016/01/20/meet-the-erin-brockovich-of-flint/#dP0vXYi9tPqq
Cardinal Fang, the former mayor’s hands are not clean in this affair, if the news reports are true; he posed for the TV cameras, took a swallow of the contaminated water, and declared it safe. By what research or evaluation did he base his statement?