The Flint, Michigan water crisis has put the spotlight on the entire state, as media and residents in the area look for someone accountable and wonder how a situation could have gone so badly, so quickly.
It’s not only residents in Flint, however. Businesses have been crippled by the lack of clean water, shutting down countless operations while the lead and chloride flow freely through Flint water pipes. But, General Motors spared itself over what could have been something truly disastrous for the automaker and its Flint-based assemblies.
According to a report from Automotive News, GM had a major red flag back in 2014 with its water supply. After making the switch to Flint River water that same year, union employees noticed corrosion of engine blocks.
“The water was rusting the [engine] blocks,” Dan Reyes, president of UAW Local 599, which represents the plant’s nearly 900 workers, said. The super-high levels of chloride in the water was causing corrosion when it came in contact with materials.
In December of 2014, GM made a grand move: it stopped the flow of Flint River water, and switched to a fresh supply from Flint Township, something made possible due to it bordering the township and infrastructure already being in place. The option was not offered to other local businesses or residents.
GM’s problem wasn’t the corroded lead pipes spewing chemicals into fresh water, but the chloride added to break down solids and contaminants. The chloride caused much “visible damage on parts leaving the machining process”, GM spokesman Tom Wickham recalled.
And here we stand today, with a city of around 100,000 brought to its knees. Locals have stocked up on bottled water, and home water filters have flown off shelves.
The UAW itself has stepped up, too, to fill its social responsibility within the community. Hundreds of Flint assembly workers volunteered to deliver cases of bottled water to residents and local community centers.
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Speaking of excess chemical continuation, ………. Its amazing how many household
items are radioactive. This is a great video to show some items that
are surprisingly radioactive, with NUCLEAR RADIATION!
*Hands him a tinfoil hat*
Folks, when a cancer patient undergoing radiation therapy uses their home toilet, guess what happens?
Radiation enters the water. In fact, it’s all around us. There is such a thing as an “acceptable level”.
Many years ago, I read that if you were to eat a year’s supply of potatoes in one sitting, you would die of arsenic poisoning. Of course, eating those potatoes over a year’s time causes no ill effects.
Flint’s issues are different. And I’m guessing there’s no quick fix now that the pipes themselves are damaged. Kudos to the union employees who put 2 + 2 together and to GM for enacting a solution. I pray local and state officials will work to solve this issue.
It’s nothing to do with radiation in the water. It’s the chloride and other chemicals, something that numerous countries add to there water in order to “purify it and make it drinkable”. To me such additives just make said water taste like gravel is mixed into it as I swallow, leaving the feeling that there’s a lining in my throat. At the place I was living in a few years ago, our local water authority (that’s what they call them here in Australia) was under fire with the high amount of chlorine, flouride and other chemicals added to the town’s water supply. A few times the water didn’t even come out of the tap clear (and I had poly and copper pipes at my house so rusty pipes were non-existent), and was more of the colour of outback Queensland mud, with an absolutely awful smell to match.
A simple solution would be to filter the water source as it goes in towards the town, ridding it of the majority of chemical traces (you can never completely get rid of it) and supplying a healthier, more natural but still clean source of water. This would have a small financial outlay, compared to what numerous study groups would be paid before anything even happened, and would end up being a tiny fraction of the cost all up, with further savings made from no longer using chemical treatment. This water would then be completely safe to drink, would no longer have any stench to it whatsoever, and would be as clear as nature intended. There are already a few places in Europe that use such a filtering system, with a fine aluminium mesh filters running the length of the source rivers, and sitting from the bottom to about an inch or two over the top, in order for any fish to still be able to clear them (these filters have to be custom made, but don’t need often changing, just taking them out and scraping them would suffice) and are held in by aluminium brackets which are fixed to the river bed.
Nice that they’re handing out water.
Just curious though (don’t get all angry), but did any of the corroded engines make it into any vehicles on the road now?
I can see how it’d take some time to figure out that things are f’d up.
But what they did with the engines before everyone agreed there was a problem – that’s kind of a question that needs addressing, yes? They make engines for Enclaves and some other GM models. I hope they got that sorted out …
That were sent to China.
You know, not for nothing — but there’s an element of something here that’s… troubling. I get this feeling people in Flint could tell this same story a different way. As in “two sides of a story”.
Understand this is coming from someone who really likes the new GM under Mary Barra but wants to make sure it simply isn’t the same old GM under a new face.
The way I see it — simply quoting what’s written above — is that GM found the local water to be garbage. Back in 2014. Since they were a major corporation, they found a workaround denied other local businesses and solved their problem.
What I don’t understand is why they didn’t try to help solve the bigger problem. Are engines more important than people? As long as the plant is running properly then a blind eye is otherwise turned?
I know, I know — it’s not GM’s responsibility to make sure Flint has safe drinking water. But if we’re to buy into the baloney that corporations are ‘people’ too — where were these ‘people’? If they believed local Gov’t wasn’t doing that most basic of municipality jobs — PROVIDING CLEAN WATER — why weren’t the raising hell quietly behind the scenes?
And if the behind the scenes failed, why not raise hell publicly? HEADLINE: GM Plant In Flint Demands Clean Water for Industry and People. Who would have gotten upset about this?
Is it that GM itself had polluted such waters locally they were in no position to ask for clean water? My gut tells me this could be a yes. I’m not accusing, mind you. It just feels likely considering the deafening silence.
For all we know GM reported the issue and it was ignored.
With the level of BS in this deal what makes you think this did not happen?
The report was that GM did report their findings once confirmed but that there was some feet dragging on the part of local and state officials. It was only when the citizens brought a class action lawsuit did it get the attention federally.
Why didn’t the city of flint test the water quality before changing their supply. My guess is they just don’t give a fornication.