The Flint water coverup - new documentary on PBS

"They'll Have to Die of Something" | Season 2026 Episode 12 | FRONTLINE | PBS

This newly hatched documentary on the Flint water crisis is shocking. Not only was the water heavily contaminated with toxic lead, the incidence of the bacterial lung infection Legionaire's Disease started to kill Flint residents at a rate way above a normal level after the city switched its water supply from Detroit to the Flint River. With an antiquated an unprepared water treatment plant, it was a combination of factors that lead to disaster.

The shocking part of the story is the concerted effort by the Republication state government to mismanage, delay, impede & stonewall scientific investigation into the causes & fixes for this catastrophe. In the end, no one took the blame, no one went to jail & little got resolved. As the state health commissioner was quoted as saying, ''They'll have to die of something." Republican politics = cynicism. This guy had a smirk on his face throughout.

Before entering into a debate on this topic, watch the full documentary streaming from PBS. I did, last night, and I was shocked.

JacksinPA said:

"They'll Have to Die of Something" | Season 2026 Episode 12 | FRONTLINE | PBS

This newly hatched documentary on the Flint water crisis is shocking. Not only was the water heavily contaminated with toxic lead, the incidence of the bacterial lung infection Legionaire's Disease started to kill Flint residents at a rate way above a normal level after the city switched its water supply from Detroit to the Flint River. With an antiquated an unprepared water treatment plant, it was a combination of factors that lead to disaster.

The shocking part of the story is the concerted effort by the Republication state government to mismanage, delay, impede & stonewall scientific investigation into the causes & fixes for this catastrophe. In the end, no one took the blame, no one went to jail & little got resolved. As the state health commissioner was quoted as saying, ''They'll have to die of something." Republican politics = cynicism. This guy had a smirk on his face throughout.

Before entering into a debate on this topic, watch the full documentary streaming from PBS. I did, last night, and I was shocked.

Click to expand...

It's a shame that no one has noticed your thread. A year or so ago (or less) we had a long discussion of the scandal over lead poisoning. While legionnaires was briefly touched on, the perversity of those public officials focused on their failures and coverups of lead. NOW it turns out that the they and others had also covered up Legionnaire's disease, of which more than 80 or 90 have been afflicted (ten times the normal rate) AND some have died and many are maimed for life.

YET no real justice has been achieved. The fate of the investigation is in limbo...

JacksinPA said:

"They'll Have to Die of Something" | Season 2026 Episode 12 | FRONTLINE | PBS

This newly hatched documentary on the Flint water crisis is shocking. Not only was the water heavily contaminated with toxic lead, the incidence of the bacterial lung infection Legionaire's Disease started to kill Flint residents at a rate way above a normal level after the city switched its water supply from Detroit to the Flint River. With an antiquated an unprepared water treatment plant, it was a combination of factors that lead to disaster.

The shocking part of the story is the concerted effort by the Republication state government to mismanage, delay, impede & stonewall scientific investigation into the causes & fixes for this catastrophe. In the end, no one took the blame, no one went to jail & little got resolved. As the state health commissioner was quoted as saying, ''They'll have to die of something." Republican politics = cynicism. This guy had a smirk on his face throughout.

Before entering into a debate on this topic, watch the full documentary streaming from PBS. I did, last night, and I was shocked.

Click to expand...

The Flint crisis was caused by a big infrastructure spending project the democrats were all on board with.

Drawdown said:

The Flint crisis was caused by a big infrastructure spending project the democrats were all on board with.

Click to expand...

Did you watch the subject documentary where among other things they blamed the hospital for being the source of the Legionnaire's Disease? The Flint crisis was far more than just a big water project. Lots off Republican cover-ups.

JacksinPA said:

Did you watch the subject documentary where among other things they blamed the hospital for being the source of the Legionnaire's Disease? The Flint crisis was far more than just a big water project. Lots off Republican cover-ups.

Click to expand...

This crisis had nothing to do with specific party politics, it had EVERYTHING to do with the culture of large and unaccountable agencies, as well as the culture of politics. Combined with a prior NOVA special on the Flint water crisis, it is a ruthless indictment of the insularity and arrogance of a civil service culture whose attitude is tamper down public concerns and deny...deny...deny. It is a model of confirmation bias and cognitive motivation. Quite quickly the attitude of the so called "oversight" authorities was to always find a speculative rationale WHY all the evidence of toxic metals and disease must be wrong. Rather than being proactive and preventative, they were inactive and facilitative of this disaster.

Think about the criminal negligence:

- Water tests by the government were conducted in manner to eliminate a finding of, rather than to detect, toxic metal poisoning.
- Letters were sent falsely by the City to the EPA claiming they used corrosion control chemicals and protocols.
- Even government researchers were obstructed from interviewing Legionnaire victims, or examine epidemiological data on pneumonia (to discover misdiagnosis).
- The few responsible EPA and other employees that detected the looming disaster (or discovered it) were silenced and one was transferred.
- The agencies responsible for public health at a county and state level, completely botched using bad statistical methods to defend their non-concern (and refused to look at contrary evidence by a university research team sent them).
- The state and federal EPA "experts" were clueless over what the proper procedures and applications of chemical treatment should be, and mainly traded ignorance's in the usual ineffective "committee" gatherings of ill-prepared (and unqualified) civil servants. For 18 months they facilitated denial, dismissing more than one researcher (University of Virginia and one at a local hospital examining children's sky-rocketing lead poisoning rates).

I have NO compassion for most of the people involved in this debacle, save for a couple of folks who tried to prevent it or warned of it. I also give a nod to the few who, after relentlessly troubling findings by outsiders, finally woke up to and started to remove their peers road-blocks. However, for the 80 to 90 percent that dug in their heels and refused to accept reality for 18 months (and some still refuse) I have nothing but contempt.

There are at least a dozen that should be in jail, and probably one or two that ought to be on death row (if the state had capital punishment). As with military justice, "I was just following orders in destroying the paper trail" is inexcusable. And when (by my count) 82 died and just as many are maimed and mentally crippled for life a signal needs to be sent to these nests of life-time employees..."you too can be held for murder by your actions".

Yet, under the new state administration and AG it seems that in spite of all their rhetoric in going after justice, they have deftly derailed it. That too is deserving of severe punishment, if not in this world than the next.

Ya, I am mad as hell over this.