[Spooky23]

Flint had nothing to do with old pipes. It was about bad management and bad engineers whose incompetence resulted in poisoned water.

Those individuals were held criminally responsible. Unfortunately, society and the citizens of Flint bear the cost and consequence of their misbehavior.

[twobyfour]

Actually, the old pipes were a major factor. You see, without the correct chemical treatments, the old pipes were releasing scale that had built up over the years.

You see, old lead pipes are safe once they build up a patina; but untreated, acidic water erodes that patina (and also leaches lead from the pipes more readily) and allows the lead to enter tap water.

Even with proper treatment, when lead pipes are disrupted by construction, the patina/scale can be disturbed and the pipes can become dangerous again.

So yes, the failure to treat the water is the immediate (and I agree, criminally negligent) cause of the crisis. But the root cause is old lead pipes; resuming treatment doesn't fully eliminate the danger (which will continue to be elevated for as long as it takes for the patina to build back up); and one of the solutions under discussion has been replacing them.

http://m.startribune.com/flint-water-crisis-reveals-vulnerab...

[Spooky23]

Of course they are a factor. So is not having billions lying around to rip up every street and building connection to water. Especially in impoverished cities that can barely afford street lighting.

Without the crisis created by criminal negligence, you had a much more sustainable situation that could have been addressed while controlling impact to consumers of water.

Note that I'm not agitating for old pipes. Far from it -- but in a world of limited resources, advocating for magically conjuring up money to do wholesale replacements of water supply (and sewer, as disrupting old pipes will disrupt old sewers) is a fantasy that distracts from solutions to these engineering problems.