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Thread: Legionnaires' disease adds to water concerns in Flint

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    Lightbulb Legionnaires' disease adds to water concerns in Flint

    A water crisis in Flint has focused mostly on the impact of drinking supplies containing lead that had leached from old plumbing after the city switched sources to save money. But Michigan officials stunned the community this week when they also reported an increase in Legionnaires' disease cases over the past two years in Genesee County, where Flint is located.

    There were at least 87 confirmed Legionnaires' cases, including 10 deaths, from June 2014 to November 2015, compared to only 21 cases in 2012 and 2013. Michigan health officials said they can't conclude that the increase was related to Flint's water, although concerned residents blitzed the county health department with phone calls Thursday.

    Flint pulled water from the Flint River for 18 months until last fall but didn't use treatments that could have reduced corrosion and possibly removed other contaminants. Local officials declared a public health emergency in October in response to elevated levels of lead in children. Lead can cause behavior problems and learning disabilities in children as well as kidney ailments in adults.



    http://www.chron.com/news/science/article/Q-A-Legionnaires-disease-adds-to-water-concerns-6759589.php



    I think it's safe to say, the Citizens of Flint Michigan can't afford anymore Management Geniuses

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    exotix's Avatar Senior Member
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    Whatever happened to the $5 Billion given to Gov. Snider as the Michigan Stimulus package Bush signed ?
    'How and Why ?' ~ Einstein

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    Quote Originally Posted by exotix View Post
    Whatever happened to the $5 Billion given to Gov. Snider as the Michigan Stimulus package Bush signed ?
    Hookers and blow baby. He is a republican after all.
    People who think a movie about plastic dolls is trying to turn their kids gay or trans are now officially known as

    Barbie Q’s

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    Cool

    Granny says, "Dat's right - Obama gonna take names an' kick butt...

    Obama to visit Flint to discuss water crisis
    April 27, 2016 | WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama next week will make his first trip to Flint, Michigan, since the city was found to have lead-tainted drinking water, a trip aimed at reassuring residents their plight hasn't been forgotten and pressuring Congress to approve economic aid, the White House said Wednesday.
    Obama is due to receive a briefing on the federal effort to assist in the cleanup and to hear directly from Flint residents about the toll the contamination has had on their health and their lives. Obama said he plans to "use my voice to call for change" in Flint. The city's water system became tainted in 2014 when it removed itself from the Detroit water system and began drawing water from the Flint River to save money. Regulators failed to ensure the water was properly treated and lead from old pipes leached into the water supply. Two state officials and a local official have been charged with evidence tampering and other crimes in a Michigan attorney general's investigation. A federal investigation is also under way.

    The White House announced Obama's trip by posting online a letter the president wrote to Flint resident Amariyanna "Mari" Copeny. The 8-year-old activist known as "Little Miss Flint" wrote to Obama last month to tell him she was coming to Washington to push lawmakers to do more for the city. In a letter dated April 25, Obama responded by telling Copeny that he wanted her to be first to know about his visit. He told her he hoped to meet her and promised to "use my voice to call for change and help lift up your community." "I want to make sure people like you and your family are receiving the help you need and deserve," Obama wrote.

    Obama's visit comes as senators reached a bipartisan agreement on new federal aid for Flint. The package would authorize $100 million in grants and loans to replace lead-contaminated pipes in Flint and other cities, as well as $70 million in credit subsidies for loans to improve water infrastructure across the country. The deal also includes money for bolster lead-prevention programs nationwide.

    The agreement is virtually identical to a one crafted earlier this year, but derailed by opposition from Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who said the state didn't need the federal aid. "We would certainly welcome a greater commitment, or frankly, any commitment from Republicans in Congress in responding to this situation," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday. Earnest said the president hoped to "demonstrate that while the public discussion of this situation doesn't retain the same spot in the limelight, the administration is committed to following through on helping that community recover."

    http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/...s-water-crisis

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    Angry

    Sounds like somebody jackin' up the cost...

    Flint, Michigan, pipe-replacement cost nearly doubles: newspaper
    May 28 2016 - The cost of replacing water lines in Flint, Michigan, has nearly doubled amid a health crisis from high lead levels in drinking water, the Detroit Free Press reported on Saturday.
    The average cost for replacing a service water line in Flint through a pilot project that ended this month was $7,500, the newspaper said. The figure is almost twice the $4,000 estimated by the state Department of Environmental Quality at the beginning of Flint's water crisis last fall. The cost comes from a report by the engineering company Rowe Professional Services for the state. The Free Press obtained a copy.


    QUALITY REPEAT: A sign is seen next to a water dispenser at North Western high school in Flint, a city struggling with the effects of lead-poisoned drinking water, in Michigan

    The increased cost could complicate talks in Lansing, the state capital, over how much Michigan should put up to help Flint as it faces a $460 million revenue shortfall, the newspaper said. Governor Rick Snyder's budget originally called for nearly $200 million for Flint to deal with the crisis. Flint has received $2 million from the state to replace about 500 lines.

    A spokeswoman for Mayor Karen Weaver could not be reached immediately for comment. Flint switched water supplies to the Flint River from Detroit's system in 2014 to save money. The river's corrosive water leached lead, a toxic element that can damage the nervous system, from the city's water pipes. Flint switched back to the Detroit system in October.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mi...-idUSKCN0YJ0Q2

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    Red face

    Michigan tries to weasel out of it's responsibility, court says no...

    Michigan loses court case to stop home water deliveries due to lead
    December 16, 2016 - Michigan must deliver bottled water or provide in-home filtration to all qualified residents in the city of Flint, where lead contamination sparked a public health crisis, a U.S. appellate panel ruled on Friday upholding a lower-court order.
    The state argued that door-to-door deliveries to all Flint households exposed to lead-tainted tap water would be financially crippling and was unnecessary because bottled water was available to residents at government-run distribution sites, or by delivery upon request. But a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, refused the state's plea to set aside the blanket water-delivery order imposed on Nov. 10 by U.S. District Judge David Lawson. "Although there may be no known precedent for the door-to-door delivery of bottled water, there is also no precedent for the systematic infrastructure damage to a water delivery system that has caused thousands of people to be exposed to poisonous water," circuit judges Damon Keith and Bernice Donald wrote in Friday's opinion.


    The Flint Water Plant tower in Flint Michigan

    The appeals court disputed the state's cost projection for blanket home deliveries - $10.5 million a month - as "disingenuous" and "not supported by the record." Under Lawson's order, city and state officials must provide in-home filtration or deliver four cases of bottled water per affected household each week, except where they can prove a water filter is installed and properly maintained, or to residents opting out. Governor Rick Snyder's office said that bottled water had been furnished by delivery for months to those residents who requested it. "The state and city are in agreement that bottled water deliveries to residents who do not require them will reduce the progress made in the city’s recovery," a statement said.


    The Department of Environmental services has expanded bottled water delivery in Amherst.

    Michigan has been at the center of a public health crisis since last year, when tests found high levels of lead in blood samples taken from children in Flint, a predominantly black city of 100,000. The contamination was linked to an April 2014 decision by a state-appointed emergency manager to switch Flint's water source to the Flint River from Lake Huron to save money. The more corrosive river water caused lead to leach from city pipes into the drinking water. Flint switched back in October 2015, but the water has not fully returned to normal. The city has been replacing lead pipes running to homes, and state officials have said the water is safe to drink if properly filtered.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/michigan-...36.html?ref=gs

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    Question

    How many other cities suffer from lead leaching in old water pipe systems?...


    US EPA Awards $100 Million to Upgrade Flint Water System
    March 17, 2017 | WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday it had awarded $100 million to upgrade Flint, Michigan's drinking water infrastructure to address a crisis that exposed thousands of children to lead poisoning.
    The grant to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality will enable the city to “accelerate and expand” its work to replace lead pipes and make other improvements, according to the EPA. Estimates of the upgrade's cost range from $200 million to $400 million. Friday's announcement made the disbursement official. Last year, Congress passed and former president Barack Obama signed the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act to allocate $100 million to aid Flint.


    $31.5 million to be paid immediately


    The EPA's state revolving funds, which Congress can allocate to help with cleanup efforts, were one of the few programs that the Trump administration did not slash in its proposed budget for the agency. “Flint's water infrastructure as part of our larger goal of improving America's water infrastructure,” said a statement from agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.



    The Flint Water Plant water tower is seen in Flint, Michigan, March 21, 2016. The EPA awarded $100 million to upgrade Flint's drinking water infrastructure



    The EPA will make $31.5 million immediately available for lead pipe replacements and upgrades, and Michigan will provide a $20 million required match. The remaining $68.5 million will come after the city and Michigan complete additional public comment and technical reviews. “Today we have good news for families in Flint who have already waited far too long for their water system to be fixed,” said a statement from U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, and Congressman Dan Kildee, all Michigan Democrats.


    Flint mayor meets Trump


    Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, also a Democrat, said the funds would help the city reach its goal of replacing 6,000 pipes this year. She met briefly with President Donald Trump on Wednesday. In January, 1,700 Flint residents filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Michigan, saying the EPA failed to warn them of the dangers of the toxic water or take steps to ensure that state and local authorities were addressing the crisis. The plaintiffs seek $722 million in damages.



    Flint Mayor Karen Weaver listens as Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette addresses a news conference


    Midwestern politicians are worried about the elimination in the proposed U.S. budget of funding for an effort to clean up the Great Lakes, from which some states draw their drinking water. Flint was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched its water source to the Flint River from Lake Huron in April 2014. The more corrosive river water caused lead to leach from pipes and into the drinking water. The city returned to its original water source in October 2015.


    http://www.voanews.com/a/us-epa-awar...m/3771245.html

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    Exclamation

    Legionnaires Strikes Disneyland...

    Legionnaires Sickens 12 in California, Including 9 at Disneyland
    November 11, 2017 — Disneyland has shut down and decontaminated two cooling towers following an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that sickened 12 people, nine of them guests or employees at the theme park in Anaheim, county health officials said Saturday.
    One of the three cases of the respiratory illness not linked to Disneyland was fatal in an individual who had additional health issues, said Jessica Good of the Orange County Health Care Agency. The chief medical officer for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Pamela Hymel, said in a written statement that after learning of the Legionnaires' cases, park officials ordered the cooling towers treated with chemicals to destroy the bacteria and shut them down. Cooling towers provide cold water for various uses at Disneyland and give off a vapor or mist that could have carried the Legionnella bacteria.


    Disneyland, which opened in 1955 and attracts tens of thousands of visitors a day, is owned by The Walt Disney Co. Hymel said that local health officials had assured them that there was no longer any risk to guests or employees of the park. There was no information on the condition of the remaining 11 victims because of patient confidentiality laws.



    Fireworks fill the sky during Disneyland's 50th anniversary celebration ceremony at the theme park in Anaheim, Calif., May 5, 2005. After an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, park officials said Nov. 11, 2017, that cooling towers at the park had been treated with chemicals to destroy bacteria.



    Good said an investigation of the Legionnaires' cluster discovered that the 12 people sickened by the serious lung disease had traveled to, lived in, or worked in Anaheim during September. Ten of the victims, who ranged in age from 52 to 94, were hospitalized. Legionnaires' disease can cause potentially fatal respiratory illness and pneumonia. Older people and those with health issues are particularly at risk.


    According to the Orange County health agency, Legionella is becoming more common in the United States and in Orange County, where 55 cases have been reported through October 2017, compared with 53 for all of 2016 and 33 in 2015. Symptoms develop two to 10 days after exposure, the OCHCA said, and include fever, chills, cough, muscle aches and headaches. It is treated with antibiotics, which can improve symptoms and shorten the length of illness. The disease is not contagious.


    https://www.voanews.com/a/legionnair...d/4111495.html

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