Except... That's not what happened. The switch was essentially forced by a broke DWSD trying to squeeze a broke Flint system. When Vice writes Despite DWSD’

Except... That's not what happened. The switch was essentially forced by a broke DWSD trying to squeeze a broke Flint system. When Vice writes Despite DWSD’s cheaper offer to Flint it's a damn lie. DWSD was already charging TWICE ($12M) what the KWA contract was to charge, even for the larger supply and the wider pipe... and they were increasing their charge for the subsequent contract. Neither the governor nor the special manager chose the switch singlehandedly -- it was passed by the council on a 7-2 vote, including a majority of its Democrats. Similarly, Obama's EPA voiced no objections to the switch when it happened. The "heavy metals" and other nonbiological contaminants issues were not in the supplied water -- they leached out of the crappy Flint city and individual homes' pipes. As for the Legionella, that I haven't researched, but it seems really odd that if it was in the water supply at or before the treatment plant, it should have affected all neighborhoods equally, if it entered later. The water draw directly from the river after the switch was only part of the supply, and even that was only temporary until that pipeline was finished. Sure, if if had been known or assumed from the outset that past FWD governance had allowed such crappy and poorly maintained pipelines to be so unusually vulnerable to lower pH water, they could (and should) have been proactive in adding buffering chemicals... but again, none of this happens without DWSD gouging the hell out of client water systems like Flint. When you're broke, $6+ million a year is real money (nearly $200/year per family).