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| The rust belt city of Flint becomes a national story. The water supply is corrupted. |
Hashtag activism brought attention to the 97,000 populated city of Flint, Michigan.
Michigan's eighth largest city is in dire straits. The city is within a hour of the U.S. Canadian border. The city is within traveling distances from metropolitan areas such as Detroit, Saginaw, Warren, Ann Arbor, Lansing and Port Huron.
Interstate 69, Interstate 75, Interstate 475 and U.S. Highway 23 connects Flint to areas in the lower peninsula.
Flint suffered some of the worst since General Motors packed it up and left. Flint has been ranked among the "Most Dangerous Cities in the United States", with a per capita violent crime rate seven times higher than the national average.
The real crime continues to hurt the city. The city's water supply is contaminated and people are getting real sick off it.
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| That water could kill you! |
The water supply in the city is so polluted, the Michigan governor had no choice but to call upon the federal government to assist.
Sometime in 2014, the city's drinking water had a series of issues that culminated with lead contamination, creating a serious public health danger. The crisis began when the city—then under the control of emergency manager Darnell Earley—changed the source of the water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The corrosive river water of the Flint River caused lead from aging pipes to leach into the water supply, causing extremely elevated levels of lead. As a result, residents had severely high levels of lead in the blood and experienced a range of serious health problems.
There are four families who filed a federal class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit against Governor Rick Snyder and thirteen other city and state officials. Separately, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan opened an investigation. In early January 2016, the city was declared to be in a state of emergency by the Governor of Michigan Rick Snyder.
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| Dr. Karen Weaver, the mayor of Flint with Republican governor Rick Snyder of Michigan. |
There are calls from social media to indict former mayor Dayne Walling and Michigan governor Rick Snyder. Activist and entertainer Michael Moore went to social media to hashtag #ArrestSnyder
And of course, the #FlintWaterCrisis is trending on social media right now.
Conservatives are having a field day with this. They want to blame liberalism and the Democratic Party for this crisis.
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| Water rationing and spikes in sales create a panic. |
Representatives approved a resolution back by the Senate in November that blocks the Environmental Protection Agency's "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule.
The regulation protects streams and wetlands used in local water supplies, but failed after a deluge of lobbying from corporations including Halliburton, Shell, and Tyson foods.
President Barack Obama is expected to veto the bill to protect the rule, at the same time as he considers a request from Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to declare a state of emergency.
Frustrated residents have called for the Republican governor’s resignation after high levels of deadly lead were found in Flint’s drinking water.
The city switched its supply in April 2014 from Lake Huron to the Flint River in an effort to save $19 million.
By the way, Snyder is facing more controversy. The city of Detroit's public schools are facing a crisis as well. Some educators are doing sick outs because they're fed up with the state not contributing funds to the overcrowded and deteriorating schools.
