Octopus Overlords

the crisis also has been linked to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that contributed to at least a dozen deaths

Lyon was aware of the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak by early 2015 but “did not notify the public until a year later,”

The Flint Water Crisis has officially lasted more than 1,000 days. 1,019 days to be exact. And, as you can imagine, the thousand mark wasn’t an anniversary Flint residents were celebrating.
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The long wait for a solution has given Mays time to become an expert in Flint math. She captures and rattles off data like a prodigy. The first fact she drops? “The Governor spent less than two minutes talking about Flint in his speech.”

The speech she’s talking about was the State of the State address. During those estimated two minutes, Gov. Rick Snyder summarized, “...we have new test results and by June of 2016 this last year we provided $27 million to help with lead pipe replacements to the city of Flint. To date we’ve seen progress, over 600 pipes have been replaced and we look forward to working with the city on accelerating the progress of that. We are working hard on that topic.”

To those listening outside of Michigan, 600 pipes may sound like a great start. Until someone like Mays spits out another fact: More than 17,000 pipes need replaced. 600 out of 17,000. That means 1,000 days in, only around 3.5% of the work is done.

Authorities investigating Flint's water crisis have used search warrants to seize from storage the state-owned mobile devices of former Gov. Rick Snyder and 65 other current or former officials, The Associated Press has learned.

The warrants were sought two weeks ago by the attorney general's office and signed by a Flint judge, according to documents the AP obtained through public-records requests.

Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who is helping with the probe, confirmed they executed a series of search warrants related to the criminal investigation of Flint's lead-contaminated water in 2014-15 and an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease. They declined further comment.

One warrant, signed May 19, lists all content from Snyder's cellphone, iPad and computer hard drive. Similar information was sought from the devices of 33 employees who worked in his office, 11 in the Department of Environmental Quality and 22 in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Sun Sep 29, 2019 9:19 pm Hints of flint in Kansas?

Kraken wrote:

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Sun Sep 29, 2019 9:19 pm Hints of flint in Kansas?

Paywalled, can you summarize?

Flint connection: Wichita Water Partners identified Veolia, an engineering firm tied to water crises in Flint, Mich., and Pittsburgh, Penn., as a potential operator for the plant and a firm that could train city staff. Veolia is being sued in Michigan after it assured the residents of Flint that its water was safe to drink, despite growing complaints from residents about sediment and discoloration. The state’s attorney general blames the company’s advice for causing lead to enter people’s drinking water. The company has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, placing the blame on government agencies that failed to act. The company faced similar claims in Pittsburgh but settled out of court

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Mon Sep 30, 2019 10:02 am

Kraken wrote:

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Sun Sep 29, 2019 9:19 pm Hints of flint in Kansas?

Paywalled, can you summarize?

Wichita Mayor steers largest ever contact for water plant to buddies in Kansas over staff objections. Arguably under qualified firm also going to use same company which said flint water was fine to run the plant.

The city plans to spend about $524 million to build a new plant to treat drinking water. Its 80-year-old plant could fail at any moment, officials have said, leaving 500,000 people without water. How the project is handled will affect how much residents pay for water — and the quality of that water — for generations to come.

A city selection committee unanimously recommended awarding the contract to Jacobs Engineering, one of the nation’s leading design firms that specializes in water treatment plants.

Instead, at Longwell’s urging, the City Council gave it to Wichita Water Partners, a group that has less experience designing large water plants. City staff warned that the group was seeking advice on how to run Wichita’s plant from a company blamed for the Flint, Mich., water crisis.

Longwell, who is up for election in November, said he is friends with the presidents of two companies on the Wichita Water Partners’ team.

Before Longwell cast the deciding vote, the president of one of the Water Partners’ companies paid for Longwell to enter a $1,000-per-person charity golf tournament.

The relationships and meetings during open bidding were not disclosed to the city by Longwell or the contractors. The Wichita Eagle found them in thousands of pages of documents obtained through the Kansas Open Records Act, including the mayor’s work calendar and 2,384 pages of correspondences from city officials’ email accounts and phones.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday plans to issue a long-awaited proposal aimed at improving how communities around the nation test for lead in drinking water and forcing quicker action when problems arise.

The overhaul comes nearly three decades after the federal government last updated its lead and copper rule — a regulation that has been criticized as complicated, poorly enforced and not tough enough when it comes to protecting Americans from a toxic metal that scientists say is unsafe at any level.
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The EPA’s revamped rule, which has been in the works since 2010, is meant to provide what the agency calls a “proactive and holistic approach” to more reliably identify elevated lead levels across 68,000 public water systems and to force utilities to tackle problems faster.
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However, while Thursday’s sprawling proposal seeks significant changes to the status quo, some environmental advocates said the agency’s overhaul does not appear to take the most important step: requiring the steady removal of the estimated 6 million or more lead service lines that remain underground throughout the nation.
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The EPA says it will require utilities to create an inventory of lead service lines and to make those findings public. It also will require that all test samples be taken at homes with lead service lines, compared with only half under the current rule. When a water utility finds elevated lead levels, it now will have to notify homeowners within 24 hours.

In an effort to close loopholes that critics say have long allowed communities to avoid reporting troubling test results, the EPA also plans to strengthen existing testing protocols. The agency no longer will allow practices such as removing aerators from faucets before testing, giving residents small-necked bottles and instructions to fill them slowly or “pre-flushing” water from lines before taking samples. Each of those tactics can temporarily lower lead levels and mask potential violations.

stessier wrote: ↑Tue Jan 12, 2021 5:40 pm Former Michigan governor Rick Snyder is being idicted with others for what happened in Flint.

stessier wrote: ↑Tue Jan 12, 2021 5:40 pm Former Michigan governor Rick Snyder is being idicted with others for what happened in Flint.

Sudy wrote: ↑Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:39 am I always forget this isn't the shootings thread.

Newly raised concerns about lead-covered telephone cables installed across the US many decades ago are putting pressure on companies like AT&T and Verizon to identify the locations of all the cables and account for any health problems potentially caused by the toxic metal.

US Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) wrote a letter to the USTelecom industry trade group this week after a Wall Street Journal investigative report titled, "America Is Wrapped in Miles of Toxic Lead Cables." The WSJ said it found evidence of more than 2,000 lead-covered cables and that there "are likely far more throughout the country."

WSJ reporters had researchers collect samples as part of their investigation. They "found that where lead contamination was present, the amount measured in the soil was highest directly under or next to the cables, and dropped within a few feet—a sign the lead was coming from the cable," the article said.

Markey wrote to USTelecom, "According to the Wall Street Journal's investigation, 'AT&T, Verizon and other telecom giants have left behind a sprawling network of cables covered in toxic lead that stretches across the US, under the water, in the soil and on poles overhead... As the lead degrades, it is ending up in places where Americans live, work and play.'"