More than a quarter of a million people in Michigan’s richest county have to boil their drinking water this week. If you haven’t heard, that’s because a four-foot wide water transmission line apparently broke in Farmington Hills Monday night.
This has gotten a lot of publicity, far more so, say, than the Flint water crisis in its early stages. If you are a poor person of color in Flint, you might think this is because the people affected now are far more affluent, better connected, and nearly all white.
Click here to listen to Oakland County residents affected by the water main break
I won’t say that’s wrong. We don’t yet know what caused that pipe to break. It was 47 years old and was made to last for a century, but had never been inspected. This happened, by the way, almost ten months to the day after the giant sinkhole collapse in Macomb County that completely destroyed three houses.
I haven’t heard any conspiracy theorists say these two events are linked. But in fact they are, every bit as much as if terrorists had been involved. Don’t like water mains breaking and sewers collapsing? Well, get used to it – it may well happen in your neighborhood soon.
READ MORE AT: http://michiganradio.org/post/michigan-continues-collapse-no-solution-planned