The water of Flint, Michigan was poisoned because state officials sought to save money by connecting the city to the Flint river rather than the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) source.
According to emails sent to state officials, however, DWSD offered to give the city a discount that actually would have saved more money.
An e-mail obtained by Motor City Muckraker shows the deal would have saved the city $800 million over 30 years, which was 20% more inexpensive than switching to the Karegnondi Water Authority. [...]
“When compared over the 30 year horizon the DWSD proposal saves $800 million dollars or said differently – saves 20% over the KWA proposal,” then-DWSD Director Sue McCormick said in the e-mail dated April 15, 2013.
If state officials had simply taken the deal offered to them by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, they would have saved more money and they wouldn't have poisoned a city of nearly 100,000 people.
The Motor City Muckraker reports that DWSD officials privately told them the decision to change the city's water source was ultimately a political decision, not financial. Others have speculated that the decision was motivated by Governor Snyder's plan to privatize DWSD.
It seems like a lifetime ago when we discussed right here now how terrible of an idea the emergency management law was, and now there's no denying it.
This is the Republican vision for "small government." If Republicans had their way, the entire country would be managed just like Michigan.
Meanwhile, Jeb Bush says Snyder has done a heckuva job.