Talk Sense About The Flint Water? Get Fired.

[angelatc]

In Michigan, this is a big deal. Bill Ballenger is a long time political pundit here in Michigan. He leans left, but he's sort of like Glenn Greenwald in that his observations are usually based in fact, not emotion.

After the governor's "State of the State" address, Ballenger wandered off the left's talking point plantation. He had the audacity to say that the water crisis is overblown.


“There was some real question, in my examples, and everybody acknowledges this of whether the lead traces in blood, whether it was children’s or adults, came from Flint River water or whether it came from some other source,” Ballenger said.


Ballenger said Flint residents could be coming into contact with lead in the air and ground as a result of the demolition and arson of city homes “filled with lead.”


“There’s just a whole range of questions, and nobody has really answered them,” Ballenger said.


The result? Off with his head!


Lansing — Longtime Michigan political pundit Bill Ballenger was abruptly fired Wednesday from the publication he founded 29 years ago for dismissing the scientific severity of Flint’s lead-contamination water crisis.

[fr33]

angela is going to tell us that lead is good for us. Just give her time.

I mean come on. These Flint people live in a shit hole. They for the most part don't have any money and don't travel. Are you going to say bottled water did it?

[presence]

“There’s just a whole range of questions, and nobody has really answered them,”

Its really simple actually. River water is acidic. Detroit city (Lake Huron) water isn't. Detroit is full of old homes with old copper plumbing. You run lake water through the pipes in Flint and the insides of the pipes stays lined with a white wall of mineral deposits; the pipes will probably last another 50 years. You run river water through the Flint pipes and the deposits quickly dissolve... then the lead holding the old fittings together leaches into the water; in 10-20 years the copper will be stripped to a thin shell.

So the river water itself isn't toxic. Its reaction with old copper/lead plumbing is.

Acidic water is highly reactive with copper plumbing even if you don't have lead issues... I've seen homes that were newly plumbed less than 10 years ago and all the copper is junk because of acidic water supply.

Plumber story... changed a woman's bowl out one time... old lady. Pulled the old pink porcelain.. toted in the new.... went to put wax ring on for new bowl... saw daylight. That's different. Apparently her acidic water had eaten through the all copper waste lines in her old house... she had a year deep midden pile in the basement. Nice.

[Weston White]

Is the demolition and arson of city homes really a big problem in Flint? Like some inexplicable epidemic?

[kpitcher]

You run river water through the Flint pipes and the deposits quickly dissolve... then the lead holding the old fittings together leaches into the water; in 10-20 years the copper will be stripped to a thin shell.


It's even worse in some of the older areas of Flint, they have pure lead pipe for water connections. The acidic water pulls any coatings off the pipe and lets the lead leach in fast. Also when they test the water they will let the water run for awhile before gathering a water sample. Unlike the typical person who doesn't run the water long to get a glass of water.

[Dr.3D]

What?

Back in the '60s, Flint used to get all it's water from the Flint river. How it is that there was no problem then and there is now?

[angelatc]

angela is going to tell us that lead is good for us. Just give her time.

I mean come on. These Flint people live in a shit hole. They for the most part don't have any money and don't travel. Are you going to say bottled water did it?

If you don't understand science and haven't paid much attention to the topic at hand, much less actually read the article, by all means start a post with a snarky personal attack then follow it up asking a question that proves you don't have a clue. Oh wait, you already did.

What I said - and try to follow this - is that a pundit got fired for writing an editorial indicating that the problem was possibly being overblown for political reasons.

Here's some science to back up his opinion: Interactive map: Places with higher lead rates than Flint (http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20151210/NEWS/151219980/interactive-map-places-with-higher-lead-rates-than-flint)

[angelatc]

What?

Back in the '60s, Flint used to get all it's water from the Flint river. How it is that there was no problem then and there is now?

It was not treated properly this time.

[Dr.3D]

It was not treated properly this time.
Guess they forgot how to do it since the early 60s.

[angelatc]

Guess they forgot how to do it since the early 60s.

They had the right information. They just did not utilize it.

[Dr.3D]

They had the right information. They just did not utilize it.
I suspect there is more politics to it than meets the eye here too.