Jordan IN-DEPTH on the Flint Water Cover-Up

"We have to make sure we don’t let our fellow Americans become numb when a crisis is still very much a crisis," Jordan tells Foreword Book Review in wide-ranging interview.

Hey folks, it’s Jordan.

Happy to share a wide-ranging interview I did with Foreword Book Reviews for my book “We the Poisoned: Exposing the Flint Water Crisis Cover Up and the Poisoning of 100,000 Americans” (published nearly a year ago).

This is probably the most in-depth interview I’ve done thus far explaining the backstory on the Flint water crisis—and cover-up—in a way that makes the broader point that this kind of calamity can happen to any of us at any time.

READ/SHARE FULL INTERVIEW HERE.

Here’s a short excerpt:

Foreword: You use the term “economic terrorism” to describe what was being done to the people of Flint over decades. In fact, it’s the title of chapter 6. Can you explain?

Me: At every turn, there had been reasonable, and more cost-effective, water options for Flint than leaving the Detroit water system. However, the actions of Flint’s unelected emergency manager and KWA’s biggest boosters began to expose the layers of a sprawling scam—the decisions being made seemed to be about making money for politicians, private individuals, and even Wall Street mega-banks rather than saving money for the residents of Flint on their water bill.

A brand new water system represented a cash cow for the developers—at the time, what they dubbed the “blue economy”—via all the water local businesses would purchase from KWA. There were also shady land deals, sweetheart deals for construction contractors who then donated to politicians behind the KWA, and more. The full timeline and shocking tentacles of the KWA privatization scam are revealed in my book.

As the politicians behind KWA lobbied the Michigan state treasurer to approve Flint joining the KWA, they assured that Flint would merely be a customer purchasing water.

Then came the bait and switch.

In reality, the politicians behind KWA were lying—they didn’t have enough funding to complete the construction of the nearly $300-million dollar pipeline and needed the city of Flint to help fund pipeline construction. But there was just one tiny problem: Flint was BROKE.

The city had no credit rating and had reached its legal borrowing limit. Legally, the city was barred from borrowing any more money—unless in the event of an emergency. This was a showstopper for the KWA’s money men who, without Flint, would likely have to cancel the project. So then, how could a broke city borrow $100 million dollars to help fund a questionably-necessary new water system?

This is at the heart of the disaster. A scheme to put the city into even more debt at the cost of the people of Flint, who had been stripped of any power to stop it.

As always, thanks so much for your support. I’m not done reporting and investigating Flint—and several other government and corporate sacrifice zones. Together, let’s keep waking up the masses!

Jordan