The city of Flint, Michigan, is facing an extreme epidemic: continually rising levels of lead in their drinking water. Governor Rick Snyder has declared a state of emergency for the city. For the past 18 months, many children have been exposed to this lead-filled drinking water; lead can pose serious health concerns when children & the elderly consume it. The controversy behind this situation is that the government is to blame; government officials, and Governor Snyder himself, are being accused of “brushing this under the rug”. It has been stated that these officials have been trying to cover up the fact that there are high levels of lead in the city’s drinking water.

Aside from Government officials, many individuals within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have also been under accusation. The EPA has also been stated to have ignored the situation, and two individuals from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and one individual from the Environmental Protection Agency have left their positions due to the situation at hand. One government official from the City of Flint has also resigned.

In the United States, Flint is one of the most poverty stricken cities in the country; according to the U.S. census, roughly 40% of the city lives in poor conditions. Many of the city’s money has been spent on retired government officials, roughly 20%, which has put the city into turmoil.

But, how did this all happen? In 2013, the city had voted to begin taking water from the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA). Originally the city was getting its water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD); many city officials believed that switching to the KWA would save the city a large sum of money. The unfortunate part: KWA would not have the pipeline for drinking water from Lake Huron to Flint completed until the end of this year, 2016; the city then started to get its drinking water from their backup: the Flint river. The Flint river had many pipes within it where the water was being taken from; the water in the river had a low pH level, but a high salinity level. In having a high salinity level, the phosphate and oxide coating on the pipes within the river were being eroded; this erosion caused the bare metal of the pipes to be exposed, which caused the levels of lead in the water to rise.

In April of 2014 after the city made the switch, many Flint residents started to complain about the color, odor, and taste of their drinking water. Later on in January of 2015, many residents attended a public meeting to complain that the water was causing some serious skin issues for their children.  Darnell Earley, the state-appointed emergency manager, told the crowd of residents that it would cost the city a lot more money to switch back to getting their water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD). Interestingly enough, at around the same time, General Motors (GM) had stopped using the water from the Flint River in their factory, because the water had high levels of  chlorides: chemicals that can corrode engine parts.

An independent research team from Virginia Tech did a study on the water in the Flint River in September of 2015. This study showed drastic results: almost 25% of homes in Flint had levels of lead in their water well above the accepted federal limit. Not only that, but almost every single home in the city had discolored, distasteful water. Also in September of 2015, the Hurley Medical Center in Flint had also done a study showing the amount of children having high levels of lead in their blood to have doubled since the city switched to getting its water from the Flint River. Local and state authorities acknowledged the water crisis in October of 2015, and switched back to getting their water from the DWSD. Although the Flint River is no longer being used as the water source for Flint, much of the water is still speculated to be contaminated with lead, and many residents are skeptical. Residents are also angry, for obvious reasons, and want to have justice be served for the fact that they were poisoned with lead; whether it was on purpose, negligence, or an accident is under heavy speculation.

In February of 2015, a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who is an expert on water had noticed the potential problems with Flint’s drinking water; this individuals concerns were confirmed in April of 2015. In June of 2015, The U.S. EPA member wrote an internal memorandum to Susan Hedman, the administrator from region 5 of the EPA, the region where Flint is located. Susan stated that she could not release the information to the public, because she did not have the means necessary to do so. The EPA and Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality got into a disagreement on what to do about the water crisis, and about what to say to the public.

An individual who represented the study done at Virginia Tech on Flint’s water, Marc Edwards, stated publicly that he believed the whole situation to be a cover-up; he said: “It was the injustice of it all and that the very agencies that are paid to protect these residents from lead in water, knew or should’ve known after June at the very latest of this year, that federal law was not being followed in Flint, and that these children and residents were not being protected. And the extent to which they went to cover this up exposes a new level of arrogance and uncaring that I have never encountered. Rather than address the legitimate science questions, they mounted a public relations campaign to discredit the residents, to discredit us. I have never seen this level of arrogance and incompetence. It was mostly confined to a few key individuals, but other people are guilty of being far too trusting of those individuals, and not listening to the people who were drinking this water.” Marc Edwards comments are highly agreeable among many people, whether in Flint or other areas of the U.S.. Many people believe the government to have ignored the science behind the facts, and try to cover everything up as quickly as possible.

Late last week, Governor Snyder stated that the state of Michigan would provide Flint with $28 million to pay for things to aid in the issues caused by the water. Residents will be able to receive things like water filters, fresh bottled water, and more school nurses to help with sickness cause by the water for their children. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has also sent Flint 28,000 liters of clean drinking water. The U.S. Attorney General and the Environmental Protection Agency have also started an investigation to see if any crimes were committed by the Government officials of Flint; it has also been reported that the FBI will join in on this investigation as well. Flint is still planning to join the Karegnondi Water Authority after the pipeline from Lake Huron to Flint is completed in June of this year; in using/joining this pipeline, hopefully Flint can come to rest and finally enjoy clean, safe, drinking water.

This is an image of water taken from the same household faucet in Flint, left to right: January 15, bottles 1 & 2, January 16, & January 21, 2015. As you can see, the water gets more and more orange as the days went on. Link for Image

Above is an image of eroded pipes that were pulled from the Flint River in Michigan; the erosion of the pipes is said to be once of the main causes for the lead entering the water. Link for Image

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This is an image of water taken from the faucet of a household receiving its water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), and a household that was receiving its water from the Flint river. As you can see, there is an obvious difference in the quality of the water.  Link for Image

The Flint River. Link for Image

Reference #1: What You Should Know about the Flint Water Crisis

Reference #2: What Went Wrong in Flint

Reference #3: Events That Led to Flint’s Water Crisis