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Thursday, September 6, 2018
Press Contact: 313-349-3929
Originally printed in the Redford Connection, September 2018 Edition
Why I Researched the Flint Water Crisis and What I Found
Jennifer V. Kurland
In November of 2015 I launched my
radio show, The Offensive Feminist with Jenny K on Cave Radio
Broadcasting. This happened to coincide with the public disclosure of
lead found in the water of Flint, a story which I followed for all 100
episodes before going on hiatus in January of this year. As I followed
the news on the breaking Flint Water Crisis, I noticed discrepancies and
contradictory information being shared in the news.
In early 2016 I reached out to
organizations in Flint and began lending my support in the form of
canvassing across the city gathering information on residents needing
support and resources from the local non-profits on the ground doing the
work that the State of Michigan should have been. After following the
news for months and being on the ground in Flint, I decided to expand
the show to include video shorts and decided that the Flint Water Crisis
would be my first topic. My initial thought was of creating a 10-15
minute video on what was happening. At the time I was finishing my
degree in Political Science Public Affairs from Wayne State University,
and that coupled with my background in finance led my natural curiosity
as a researcher to the Karegnondi Water Authority’s (KWA) engineering
documents presented to the city in 2009 and the bond documents signed
off on by the State Treasurer sealing the fate of the people of Flint.
The Flint Water Crisis is both a
crime against humanity and a financial crime. The public record
confirms this, in 4 key documents of the 2009 KWA Engineering Report,
the 2011 report on the Flint River commissioned by then-Mayor Dayne
Walling, the 2013 report commissioned by the State of Michigan which
references the prior two important documents, and even in the 2014 KWA
bond documents. Further public documentation of released emails, news
articles from those time frames, and other public documents created by
Flint’s emergency managers show that all decision makers were aware of
the difference between raw and treated water, that the Flint Water
Treatment Plant did not have the necessary equipment to properly treat
water to public health standards, and that an investment of $7 million
was the minimum needed to upgrade the water plant.
After reviewing hundreds of news
articles, documents and emails, and spending six months diving into this
research, my initial idea of a 10-15 minute video turned into an
hour-long documentary on this research. Finished in June of 2016, it
can be found on the YouTube channel of The Offensive Feminist with Jenny
K along with links to a Google Drive holding all source documents. In
February of 2017, I printed the full 4-key documents and hand-delivered
those along with a 28-page annotated timeline from 2009-2015 of the
Flint Water Crisis to every current sitting State Senator and State
Representative in Michigan. I also delivered the same information to
local news outlets like the Detroit News, Free Press, Channels 2, 4, and
7, and other outlets in Flint and Lansing.
Members of both the Democrat and
Republican parties caused the Flint Water Crisis, and the culpability
lies on the State of Michigan. It has now been 4 years and 5 months
since the people of Flint were knowingly poisoned by their elected
officials, and still today they don’t have access to clean, safe
drinking water. To add further insult to injury, residents are also
being threatened with the loss of their homes and children by using
civil disobedience of non-payment of water bills until all the pipes are
fixed, and are now being forced to pay for their own bottled water as
the state has now stopped providing any sources of clean drinking
water.
The crisis is not over, and should
not be out of our minds or our hearts until our neighbors in Flint are
made whole. It is our moral duty as residents of Michigan to speak up
and demand that Flint be fixed, because the problem of lead in our
infrastructure and lead poisoning is a state-wide issue that the
children of Redford are not free from either.
Re-runs of The Offensive Feminist
with Jenny K can be found on Cave Radio Broadcasting. To keep up with
the show on social media follow our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/offensivefemme.
###
For references and documents visit
Media Team
Jennifer V. Kurland, Candidate for Governor
313-349-3929
P.O. Box 401321 Redford, MI 48240
*Paid for by Jennifer V Kurland for Michigan*
