Lead bottom and water

[Beestie]

What's happening in Flint is dreadfully sad for the people affected by it.

But, chapter 327 of tw's "I hate MBAs" treatise aside, I still don't completely understand the retrospectively obvious conclusion that the Flint River was not/is not an acceptable source of intake water. The "nobody used it for 50 years because it is corrosive" argument doesn't explain much.

Intake water for a lot of municipalities is corrosive. And polluted. And laced with discarded medication and on and on. Intake water is supposed to be treated to remove these impurities before it is delivered to the citizens. Is the argument that Flint's water treatment facility sucks so we better start with clean water where this begins?

But one thing that tw and I might agree on is that officials in whom the public has the right to trust and who violate that trust should be held to account and, in some cases, made an example of.