The city of Flint, Michigan, has caused unrest among the citizens after it spilled two million gallons of untreated sewage into the Flint river – contaminating it to a dangerous level.
Though the spill occurred on August 18, 2019, the city hadn’t revealed the exact magnitude of the sewage that had gone in the river water. The alarming figures were disclosed two days later on August 20, 2019 when a partial report by the Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy was released.
Keeping in view the high level of bacteria and germs that are now a part of the Flint river, people are advised to stay away from it.
A statement from the public health advisory of the municipality said: “Large amounts of runoff and churning of the river sediments generally result in high bacterial levels in the river throughout high flow areas.”
The statement added: “Notification of the water sample test results will be made by postings on the State of Michigan website.
“Any revisions or withdrawal of the health advisory will be made as soon as results are available.”
A few months before the recent spill, officials warned that the city’s infrastructure had reached the ‘critical point’ for waste water management.
The alarmingly crippled state of the sewage system resulted in the overflow of dirty water after a ‘flash flood event’ occurred in the region.
The rainfall, which was measured 2.2 inches in three hours, had ‘exceeded the plant’s primary settling tanks causing overflow.’
MLive reported that the sewage was then spilled on the ground from where it made its way to the storm drains which directly discharged it in the Flint river.
The city hasn’t yet announced the measures it will take to prevent such incidents in the future.
Although the City Council had approved a sum of $1 million for the wastewater infrastructure upgradation a few months ago, that didn’t seem sufficient for renovating the existing system which was at high-risk of ‘catastrophic failure.’
At present, the city is in need of a $34 million loan to finance the upgrades which are now necessary for its sewer system.
“We’re going to get to a point where we can’t treat our wastewater and sewage anymore,” Robert Bincsik, Director of Public Works at the city of Flint, told Mlive.
“We won’t have to talk about drinking water anymore, because we’ll talk about nothing but the raw sewage that gets discharged into the Flint River.”
Despite the unsatisfactory conditions of the sewer system, Bincsik attributed the recent spill to the ‘mother nature’ and called it unavoidable.
“The duration and intensity of the rain event caused an immediate and significant increase in flow, subsequently causing the primary tanks to overflow untreated sewage into the storm sewer and ultimately the river,” he said.
“Wastewater treatment plant staff did everything possible to minimize the discharge event but they are really at the mercy of Mother Nature in situations such as this.”
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