Want Fresh Water in the Great Lakes Basin? Take Out A Loan
The following are my opinions and observations regarding the unfair distribution of money and the failure of the State of Michigan to adequately address a serious public health problem.
The metal lead is a very unhealthy metal to work with or to be exposed to.?Exposure can lead to bad consequences for children’s health. ?Lead attacks the brain and central nervous system and can causing coma, convulsions and even death. Children who experience lead poisoning suffer intellectual disability and behavioral problems.
This excerpt is from 'Lead and Your Health' which can be found on a State of Michigan webpage :
"Why should I be concerned about lead exposure?
When lead is swallowed, it can cause health problems. Swallowing lead can be a serious issue for children because their bodies and nervous systems are still developing. Too much lead can cause problems with:
It is important to realize that the effects of lead poisoning are the same for adults.?For pregnant women or a couple wanting to start a family the problems are also complex and troubling.
After more than 100 years in the United States it has finally become generally known that the indiscriminate use of lead in construction has caused decades of serious health problems.?Nearly 50 years ago public service announcement cautioned against Pica, which occurs when children eat what is within reach including paint chips and other such things.?Obviously hunger figures into that.?The danger was that the paint contained dangerous levels of lead.?It was decided that painting over and not disturbing lead paint would solve the problem.?
Please consider the actions taken to address lead paint poisoning and the lack of action take concerning lead water poisoning.
During the same time lead was removed from gasoline and other fuels.
Lead remained in water lines.?Many water lines that go into the homes of millions of Americans contain lead.?There is a national, though weak, push to replace the lines.
In the City of Wayne, Michigan there at least 400 of these lines that need to be replaced.?At ten thousand dollars a piece it would cost this financially troubled community $4 million to replace them all and address this public health emergency.
Requests for financial assistance have been sent to the Federal Government.?Recently the Biden Administration provided $7 billion to the Environmental Protection Agency to address this problem.?The EPA set aside $3 billion to replace the lines in locations of their discretion and the other $4 billion was set aside to study the problem.
In Michigan the State Legislature and Governor Whitmer essentially told the local communities across the state that there would be no money for replacing the lead lines.?They did, however, offer low cost loans, backed by Michigan taxpayers, to the local governments to replace the lines.?The State of Michigan then, in combination with the Federal Government turned over nearly $1 billion to the City of Detroit for the replacement of lead lines.
Here is information about $100 million in payments set aside - in the face of refusing assistance to other communities across the State of Michigan :
???????????????In Michigan many communities put retirement funds collected from municipal workers into a company called the Municipal Employee Retirement System of Michigan.?It sounds like a government agency but it is not.
The City of Wayne has been struggling with payments into that company due to high numbers of retirees, strange actuarial tables and most importantly mandates, derived from laws, that the State Legislature put in place to apparently provide favorable trade status to MERS.?There are other competitors but the State of Michigan clearly prefers MERS.
MERS is referred to as a retirement system, but, because of certain strange laws and allowances it does not appear to be nor function in any way like other government retirement systems like Social Security or the Railroad Workers Retirement Funds :
The reason that MERS is in this conversation about lead is that MERS told all municipalities that they must be at 70% of funding for potential retirees and, seeing that wasn’t working out, recently changed the level to 60% of funding.
Because the City of Wayne was at 59% they were set to suffer severe penalties that would have easily pushed it further into distress and impact police, fire, EMT, Public Works, Engineering and other activities.?Essentially MERS threatened the very existence of this municipality as well as many across the State of Michigan.
At the final hour, the State of Michigan, which had clearly stated no money was going to be made available for replacing lead lines unless someone took a loan, suddenly produced $1.6 million on behalf of the City of Wayne to turn over to MERS so that the city could be considered sixty percent funded and avoid further legal action.
Bad things are happening right now.
When will this serious public health problem involving lead tainted water be corrected?
What do you think should be done?