CNN News:密歇根弗林特自來水含鉛超標 司法部介入調查

Our first story takes us to the U.S. state of Michigan. The National Guard has been activated there. A state of emergency has been declared.

首條新聞來自美國密歇根州。該州已經進入緊急狀態(tài)，國民警衛(wèi)隊已經出動。

It`s all related to the water supply in the city of Flint. About 100,000 people live there and some of them have been exposed to increased levels of lead in their tap water.

事件與弗林特市供水有關。約有10萬人居于市。自來水中鉛含量增加，一些人已經遇險。

This is serious. Lead poisoning can cause developmental and behavioral problems in children. It can lead to lower IQ levels. It`s irreversible.

這是一件非常嚴重的事情。鉛中毒可以影響兒童身心成長，危害智商。并且造成的傷害是不可逆的。

And what started out as a way to save money in the struggling city has put parts of the population at risks.

事件的起因是為了給這個陷入困境的城市省錢，但是因此威脅到了部分人口的生命。

A preliminary investigation did not blame the city council or the mayor of Flint, but it put the blame at the state level, with Michigan`s Department of Environmental Quality.

初步調查并沒有將責任歸咎于市議會以及弗林特市市長，但是責任應由州以及密歇根環(huán)境質量部承擔。

This neighborhood says it all, 15 percent of homes in Flint, Michigan are boarded up. There`s a 40 percent poverty rate, high unemployment, and it`s consistently at the top of the nation`s list of most dangerous places.

這里的居民稱密歇根州弗林特市15%的家庭都是用木板圍住。這里貧困率達40%，失業(yè)率很高。是美國最危險的地方之一。

This 33 square mile city doesn`t even have a grocery store. And now, they don`t have clean drinking water. For 18 months, researchers believe the water flowing through taps across Flint has been tainted with lead.

這個33平方英里的城市甚至沒有雜貨店。現(xiàn)在,他們沒有干凈的飲用水。研究人員認為弗林特的飲用水一直受鉛污染，時間已經長達18個月。

In an attempt to cut costs, city officials stopped getting pretreated water from the city of Detroit in 2014, and instead began using water from the nearby Flint River. The problem is that the Flint River is 19 times more corrosive than Lake Huron, Detroit`s water source, according to researchers at Virginia Tech. And the city wasn`t treating it according to federal law. Lead pipes began to corrode, leaking into the water.

為了節(jié)省成本，2014年佛林特市官員停止使用底特律市處理過的用水，而轉用附近弗林特河水。但是，根據(jù)弗吉尼亞理工學院研究人員稱，弗林特市河水腐蝕性是林倫河的19倍。同時弗林特市沒有按照聯(lián)邦法律處理用水。鉛管開始腐蝕，鉛泄漏到引用水中。