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A veteran Detroit journalist writes pointedly about the nationally discussed Flint water debacle.
In a comprehensive update on the saga -- which he had an early, influential role in exposing as an investigative journalist for the ACLU of Michigan -- Curt Guyette goes beyond looking at debates over whether and when to replace lead service lines.
With state and federal criminal investigations under way, the question now is: Who, if anyone, is going to go to be prosecuted over this, and will the charges include manslaughter?
That hammer falls at the end of a 3,200-word Metro Times cover article Wednesday that reviews what went awfully wrong since spring 2014 and what's still awaited two years later.
Guyette, named Michigan Journalist of the year last month by the Michigan Press Association, praises Mayor Karen Weaver as being "impressive in the ways she's dealt with the complex and chaotic situation during her first few months in office." She's "pushing to move full-speed ahead to replace the city's lead service lines," he adds.
Weaver wants the state to replace all of the service lines immediately. [Gov. Rick] Snyder, though, isn't sure that needs to happen. . . .Snyder, whose administration has been dangerously slow to react at every step of the crisis, has promoted a more measured approach, initially saying he wanted an engineering firm he selected to conduct a study of service lines before beginning replacements.
Curt Guyette: Flint residents were "kept in the dark and being fed one load of crap after another." (Alan Stamm photo)
Guyette -- who lives and works in downtown Detroit -- is brutally blunt as he retraces the path to peril in Michigan's seventh-largest city:
The state and city knew for nine months that residents were being exposed to elevated levels of a carcinogenic byproduct of chlorine because faulty treatment had led to E. coli bacterial contamination.
The issue of lead contamination of the city’s water was first raised by the EPA in February 2015, but Snyder didn’t allow Flint to return to the cleaner, safer water provided by Detroit until 10 months later.
And an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that took the lives of 10 people was not publicly acknowledged by the state until 15 months after officials became aware of the issue.
There’s a line about treating people like mushrooms by keeping them in the dark and feeding them bullshit. That’s exactly what happened in Flint, with this tragic addendum: Along with being kept in the dark and being fed one load of crap after another, they were also being forced to use poisoned water.
