In the weeks before the city of Flint began getting its water from the
Flint River in April 2014, Michigan officials were offered—and passed
on—a corrosion-control plan, according to an AP report. “You don’t need
to monitor phosphate because you’re not required to add it,” Michigan
Department of Environmental Quality representative Mike Prysby is said
to have told Mike Glasgow, the city plant’s lab supervisor at the time.
Phosphate normally would have been added to prevent corrosion in lead
pipes. Glasgow said he was surprised by those instructions, as treating
drinking water with anti-corrosive chemicals is standard practice. In an
interview with the AP, Glasgow said he later realized that exchange was
a fateful moment. “I did have some concerns and misgivings at
first,” he later said. “But unfortunately, now that I look back, I
relied on engineers and the state regulators to kind of direct the
decision. I looked at them as having more knowledge than myself.”
Lee-Anne Walters, who has helped bring official attention to the high
lead levels after they were discovered at her own home, told reporters
that hearing about those instructions made her “nauseous.” She added,
“That one meeting was the difference between this city being poisoned
and not being poisoned.” |
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