Ever wondered what happened with the FLINT water crisis ?

[link to twitter.com (secure)]

University of Michigan gave Flint a map that told them where the lead pipes were, with 94% accuracy. Flint ignored it & dug up every front yard for no reason (vast majority pointless) -- prolonging the perceived 'crisis' and leaving people who actually had lead pipes waiting.

Flint begged the federal government for $100M in water funding, citing emergency. Then it gave the contract to a firm with no experience, threw out the map of where lead pipes are, and let them dig up every single yard w/ an extremely slow, archaic method


A politically-connected contractor charged taxpayers by how many holes they dug, so the city had them dig holes everywhere to "explore" whether there were lead pipes there, rather than just using the map. When an engineer objected, city hall official threatened "trouble" for him


Another contractor used proper equipment & worked far faster than the incompetent/connected one. Was poised to fix the whole lead problem quickly, before the other contractor could bill $ So Flint BANNED the use of appropriate high-tech digging equipment


Competent reporting on the Flint water crisis would include "hydrovac" (banning equipment that would fix the problem quickest) & the "predictive model" (ignoring the map that tells you where the lead is) NYT etc would rather do fear-mongering sob stories on water w/ no substance