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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Monday, February 22, 2016 — 3A
trust free filters provided to the
community by the government.
“I
don’t
feel
like
the
(government-issued) filters are
even adequate, because I don’t
know how well they filter out
the lead,” he said. “I just know
that my filter filters out the
lead, and I don’t trust theirs.”
At his home, Worswick still
gets Flint city water, which he
noted comes with challenges
that can’t be solved just by
filtering all drinking water.
“I don’t like the fact that I
have to shower in lead water,
but it’s whatever. I have to live
with it,” he said.
Christopher
Miller,
a
freshman physics and math
major, is shoveling snow off a
bench on campus. He works for
UM-Flint part time.
Miller
is
one
of
three
people on his street who have
well water — but many of his
family and friends are not as
fortunate, he said. His friends
come to his house regularly to
take showers.
Miller said the unfolding
magnitude of the water crisis is
still unimaginable.
“It was just sort of surreal
for a while just because they
had been talking about it for
a long time — how there was
something in their water — and
it just wasn’t right,” he said.
“My sister is dealing with it,
and she was just starting to
notice hair falling off — her
skin would be really red when
she got out of the shower for
whatever reason and she didn’t
know (why),” Miller said.
He added that any trust
between
Flint
residents
and
their
local
and
state
governments that once existed
has disappeared.
“At first it was like, ‘There’s
no way the city of Flint is just
going to allow the poisoning
of 90,000 residents — no, they
totally did,” Miller said. “It just
helps to further cement the
dichotomy — the line of trust
that is just never gonna come
back in terms of citizens and
their government. It’s never
gonna come back.”
Miller said he is further
angered by the fact that national
media, not the months of Flint
residents’ complains, sparked
governmental attention to the
water crisis.
“It was going on for a solid
year and a half before the
rest of the world picked up,”
Miller said. “There’s a city of
100,000 people being poisoned
and no one seems to care just
because
they
have
shoddy
infrastructure.”
Larry
Tucker,
a
Flint
resident who regularly uses
UM-Flint campus recreational
facilities, on Friday said he
believes the government must
take immediate action. He’s not
alone in these sentiments by
far — some state residents have
called for moretransparency
from Gov. Rick Snyder (R)
while others call for his arrest.
Tucker added that the crisis
has deeply impacted his level
of trust in the government.
“I don’t trust whoever I’m
drinking water from — no way,”
he said. “Just because they
put up a sign there that says
‘filtered’ doesn’t necessarily
mean it’s filtered because the
government is always going to
cover themselves.”
Caniejrah Marshall, a junior
communications major at Mott
Community College in Flint,
works in a student convenience
store in the Harding Mott
University
Center
on
the
University’s Flint campus. Soft-
spoken, she answers questions
as she checks out customers.
She said the water crisis
has been particularly difficult
for her to deal with due to her
severe eczema, a condition that
inflames the skin.
She noticed her skin turning
extremely dry after showers
directly after the city switched
from using Lake Huron’s water
to the Flint water supply. She
suffers from regular itching
spells and takes Benadryl on
a nightly basis to alleviate the
irritation.
Before government agencies
and
local
charities
began
providing free bottled water to
Flint residents, Marshall said
she paid seven or eight dollars
for cases of water, a costly
expense. And though she has
been buying bottled water, she
continues to bathe in the tap
water.
“I have no choice but to take
a shower. It kind of makes you
feel helpless because I can’t
help but to take a shower — I
can’t help but to cook in the
water and I heard somewhere
that they could’ve fixed it a
long time ago so it would’ve
been better if they just fixed
it and treated it right in the
beginning so people wouldn’t
have to go through this,”
Marshall said.
She said she is additionally
troubled with the fact that
government officials now face
million-dollar projects to fix
and replace the pipe system,
whereas it would have initially
cost $35,000.
Though she said she is
appreciative of national and
local efforts to provide water
and filters, she worries about
those who don’t have cars and
therefore access to pick up
bottled water.
Damario Mason works with
Sodexo catering on UM-Flint’s
campus. He said his aunts
and cousins have experienced
symptoms of lead poisoning,
and his family recently decided
to leave Flint.
“They’re losing hair. They’re
getting rashes and it’s just not
livable anymore so they just
decided to leave,” Mason said.
“I saw my little cousin the
other day and she had a huge
rash on her arm, and I knew
she wouldn’t normally get that
just from regular water.”
Denazia
Pettway,
a
freshman public health and
sciences major from Detroit,
lives on UM-Flint’s campus.
Pettway
said
she
only
drinks tap water on UM-Flint’s
campus thanks to a notification
from University officials that
it’s safe, and accompaying
water filters.
She added that she was
disturbed
by
a
lack
of
governmental
accountability
surrounding the water crisis.
“They just wanted to live
their lives, but people are
getting sick and people are
dying and people are sad and
they don’t know what to do
because this is Flint,” she said.
“Flint is not the richest city.
Flint is very poor, and so they
don’t have the money to go out
and move — they don’t have
that money. They don’t have
those resources, so they have
no choice but to sit in Flint and
use water bottled water for
everything.”
solutions.
Panelist Dr. Terry Thompson,
assistant
professor
of
the
Department of Public Health
and Health Sciences at the
University of Michigan-Flint,
has been working with a team
of researchers on community-
based participatory research for
what he calls the ‘91st day.’ He
said the 91st day occurs after
media coverage slows down and
emergency funds stop coming.
“As you know, emergency
funds, water and all this usually
happens for 90 days. But what
we’re interested in is what
happens on the 91st day after
CNN has gone,” he said. “So
that’s what we’re interested in.
We’ve got to find explicitly what
is it that is needed, what is that
gap.”
The event featured videos
including from the local Fox
News channel, “Let it Rip: Flint
water crisis special” and “When
the Water Runs Dry: Voices from
the Detroit Water Crisis.”
Panelist Dr. Jerome Nriagu,
a recently retired professor
of
Environmental
Health
Sciences at the School of Public
Health, said he has done work
on childhood lead poisoning
in Flint and Detroit with a
focus on the future of the water
source. Nriagu said many of the
solutions to decontaminate the
water that were discussed in the
Fox News video such as treating
river water will not work even in
the short term.
“First of all, somebody says
you can treat Flint River water,
the answer is no,” he said.
“Because it’s contaminated with
organic compounds and we still
don’t know how to remove some
of these organic compounds
from any river water. So the
idea that you can treat river
water, from my own research
experience, is false.”
Both Thompson and Nriagu
discussed the possibility of
removing and replacing the pipes
of contaminated communities
as a long-term solution to the
water crises. Thompson said
the procedure for removing
pipes is not too complicated and
takes a few hours, adding that
community members should be
trained to replace the pipes so
they can feel involved.
“The people would feel that
they are part of the solution
and that confidence in itself will
do so much for a community,”
Thompson said.
All panelists said they agreed
that that it is important for
communities to feel empowered
and to use their voices to show
what the media will not show.
While
much
of
the
conversation in the media about
water has been centered on
Flint, panelist Alexis Ramsey,
a charter commissioner for the
city of Highland Park, said in
2014 it was reported that over
1,000 children in Highland Park
had higher lead levels than the
children of Flint and that there
had been a 35 percent increase in
water bills for bad water.
“We just want people to
understand that we are fighting
the same fight, no different
than Flint, and our citizens and
residents are facing the same
thing,” said Ramsey.
Panelist Kim Sims, mayor of
Muskegon Heights, noted that
her city was one of several that
avoided hiring an emergency
manager, which Flint had while
the crisis was unfolding. She
added that her city has its own
water filtration plant, saying
she hoped to learn from the
other panelists about water
management.
“We do have our own water
filtration plant that we own and
operate completely,” she said.
“At this point we are our own
customers because we had two
customers who decided to leave
us for another municipality. I’m
hoping to gain some knowledge
actually while I’m here and
assist the conversation however
I can.”
Panelists also discussed the
evident health issues facing the
children of Flint.
Panelist and activist Monica
Lewis-Patrick, co-founder of We
the People of Detroit which aims
to provide resources for Detroit
citizens to better their quality of
life, said children have already
started showing health problems
from the contamination.
“One of the things we know
from working on the ground in
Flint for almost two years is that
teachers are already reporting
that they are seeing behavioral
issues and acting out increased
in the classrooms,” said Lewis-
Patrick. “We also know that
with these children, especially
poor white, Black or brown
children will be more likely to be
incarcerated as opposed to being
treated.”
Charles
Ransom,
Multicultural Studies librarian
at the University Library, served
on the committee that organized
events for Black History Month.
He said this event related to
Black History Month because
water
crises
are
primarily
happening in communities with
a large population of African
Americans.
“Just like what the speakers
were saying, most of the cities
that have been affected by the
water issues are chocolate cities,
they are Black cities,” he said. “It
seems to follow the same script
— the city loses money, the city
has an asset, it’s water or it’s the
water treatment plant and they
lose it or something goes wrong.”
LSA junior Lauren Miles said
she came to event because she
was curious and had not gone
to an event for Black Heritage
Month yet. She said she wanted
to know more about the water
crisis in Flint.
“I knew of Flint, I didn’t really
know the details of it and I really
wanted to know the details
because I keep on hearing things
about water,” Miles said. “I took
a one-credit class last year about
water, it was more of a global
view on water. This is another
side of that conversation that is
important; I think it’s everyone’s
main concern.”
She added that though the
event focused on Michigan, she
thought anyone can learn from
the issues discussed.
“I think we can take things
from here and apply it to
things that are happening
all around the world,” she
said.
taking place at the University. Prof.
Gallimore said the University is a
partner and subcontractor for the
firm.
The X3, which is based on a
series of thrusters developed at
NASA, works by ejecting plasma at
extremely high speeds out of the rear
of a device, providing forward thrust.
Plasma is ejected at speeds of up to
30,000 meters per second, which is
equal to about 65,000 miles per hour.
Scott Hall, a Ph.D. candidate
in the Department of Aerospace
Engineering, is the lead graduate
student on the project. He said
while the NextSTEP funding has
only occurred in the past week,
development of the design has been
underway for some time.
“The funding through NextSTEP
has been active for about a week, and
the proposal for that was originally
made about a year ago,” he said.
“However, the X3’s development
started somewhere around 2010 and
the thruster has been assembled and
operational since September 2013.”
The X3 is competing against two
other designs for use in the XR-100
system. According to Hall, this
design is the only one of the three
that has been created by members of
a university.
The X3 design is also further
ahead of competing designs in terms
of development, Gallimore wrote in
an email.
“It is more mature than any of
the others, which means the risk
of developing it is lower,” he wrote.
“Also, it appears to be lighter and
more efficient (in terms of converting
spacecraft power to thrust) than the
other systems.”
Hall also noted that the X3 design
has a proven track record.
“The three different concepts are
all electric propulsion, but they are
all very different types,” he said. “The
thruster we have developed here has
a very proven track record: It is based
on a series of thrusters developed at
NASA.”
According to Gallimore, the short-
term goal is to bring the design to a
level of readiness within three years.
“The goal is to bring the technology
up to a readiness level in three years,
that a follow-on contract could get
the system ready for use in space a
few years after NextSTEP is done,”
he wrote.
Even if the design is ready in three
years’ however, it will be longer until
the X3 design can be tested or put
to use in space. Gallimore said he
believes one of the limitations will
not be the U-M thruster, but rather
the spacecrafts that would use it.
“The power system needed to
drive this thruster is years away from
development, so while the XR100
system could be ready by 2020, I
doubt we will have a spacecraft large
enough or powerful enough by then
to use it,” he said.
Hall agreed and said it will take
some time for the design to be put to
use.
“Realistically, it would probably be
10 years or so until something based
on this work was operated in space,”
he said. “But our project is ambitious
and if successful will get us much
closer than we are right now to being
ready to fly for the first time.”
Hall
added
that
there
are
several other potential uses of this
technology beyond just propelling
humans to Mars.
“The X3 was developed not only
with Mars missions in mind, but also
a range of other applications,” he said.
“The thruster was designed to be run
down to as low as 1 kW and up to 200
kW, so it has a huge range of ‘throttle
ability,’ as we say. Something like it
could be used to maneuver heavy
satellites in orbit around Earth, for
cargo tugs to places like Mars, to
crewed mission to places like Mars,
and as a way to get a very large probe
to deep space much quicker than by
traditional means.”
FLINT
From Page 1A
NASA
From Page 1A
PANEL
From Page 1A
non-students.
Several of the representatives
voiced concerns that the Connector
often runs regardless of whether
people are riding it, meaning it
often runs empty.
CSG representatives added that
the Connector also has a marketing
issue — few people know of its
existence. Business junior Danny
Kaprielian, the representative from
Detroit Urban Debate Education,
remarked that he had not heard of
the Connector until this meeting.
His organization sends students to
Detroit regularly.
The
Connector
is
funded
through the Office of the Provost
and will expire June of this year.
The funding will then need to be
renewed.
The
transportation
issue
is
one that underscores the lack of
communication and coordination
across
student
organizations
working in Detroit organizers said,
which is what the Detroit Congress
is working to combat.
Bennett said some of these issues
with the Detroit Connector are to
be expected, such as a disconnect
between those who are running the
transportation and those who need
to use it.
“So I guess it’s just a lack of
communication in different aspects,
as one might expect,” Bennett said.
The meeting ended with a
broader discussion on what the
organizations can do to strengthen
the
relationship
between
the
University and the city of Detroit.
Patel said he finds it helpful to
structure the Detroit Congress’
meetings around common problems
that all the student organizations
can relate to.
“It’s very beneficial to talk about
broad issues surrounding Detroit
engagement like social justice,
community service, business and
transportation, like we discussed
today,” Patel said.
The next meeting will be in
March. Bennett and Patel said
they’re
attempting
to
bring
University
administrators
to
upcoming meetings.
DETROIT
From Page 2A
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