The Flint water crisis began a long time ago, for years there have been concerns over the safety of the water in the city. The crisis was intensified beginning in 2014 and has come to public attention in late 2014 and earlier this year. In April 2014, city and state officials were involved in heated debates of how to save money and balance the budget of economically depressed, Flint, Michigan. The decision was made to change the city’s water source to the Flint River, rather than continuing to pay more to tap into the Detroit, Michigan water system. Emergency managers had the political sway to override local policies in order to make the “best” fiscal choices for the state, which in this case was not the best choice for the population of Flint. In the summer of 2014, residents began to alert officials of poor tasting, foul water and health problems resulting from the consumption of this water such as rashes. In August 2014, the water from in Flint tested positive to containing E.coli and coliform bacteria. Rather than changing the water source back to the Detroit water, city officials insisted that the water was safe to drink, but for citizens to boil it before drinking and using it. In October 2014, General Motors announced that it would no longer use the Flint water in its manufacturing plants as it caused engine parts the company used to corrode, city officials still only advised people to boil water and took no other measures. As a coercion to keep GM happy, Governor Snyder spent half a million dollars to connect them to fresh Detroit water, while the children of Flint continued to drink toxic water.
Throughout early 2015, Flint began issuing advisories that the water contained high levels of chemicals that may put sick and elderly people at risk, but still stated that the water is safe to consume. Around the same time, state government buildings in Flint start to bring in coolers of non-Flint River water so that government officials had a choice of which water to drink, while average citizens were not offered such a choice. Shortly after, Detroit offered to have Flint rejoin its water system for free, and the emergency manager at that time rejected this and was fired the next day.
The EPA then began to take note as citizens complained of symptoms caused by water levels and demanded that the water in their homes be tested. The threshold for intervention from the EPA currently stands at lead levels of 15 ppb (parts per billion), while some households were tested to have lead levels of 104 ppb and up to 400 ppb. This is up to 27 times more than the threshold for EPA intervention. Investigators found that before lead testing occurred, city officials were flushing out the water in the homes, giving false results. Without this method, some homes showed levels of 13,200 ppb, which is double the amount that the EPA considers hazardous waste. An EPA director suggested that this report was false and that these measurements were an isolated incident, hinting at further corruption within the system.
By September, a researcher and doctor found that the amount of children under 5 with high blood lead levels had tripled since the water source change, and the state pushed back by denying her data and the Governor stated that water was safe to drink but some homes had lead plumbing issues, then a week later decides to change the water source back to Detroit. In November, a class-action lawsuit is filed against the state and city for Flint residents and a task force is assembled by the governor to shift blame.
This January, the governor declares a state of emergency, and the residents are finally explicitly told to only consume bottled or filtered water. The National guard is deployed to distribute water, celebrities such as Celine Dion and Meek Mill make donations, President Obama declares Flint to be in a state of emergency, awarding $5 million in federal relief money. Presidential candidates use this as a campaigning pitch and proclaim the inhumanity and catastrophe of the situation. Currently, lawsuits against the city and in federal courts are moving forward and water supplies are still being divided up.
My Take:
The main issues that arise within this situation are the competency of state officials, the ethical behavior of those who are entrusted with citizens’ well-being, the importance of financial bottom lines as opposed to health. This one “cost-saving” action has resulted in staggering negative outcomes for the state and its people that is estimated at $1.5 billion dollars to remedy the situation. Michael Moore, who is originally from Flint, MI, stated in his article that the water source switch only saved $100 per day for 3 months, the impact of this blunder will be felt in the Michigan economy for decades to come. Additionally property values in Flint and the surrounding areas have shot down to zero, because who would really want to live in Flint right now? The residents of Flint are now stuck there with there as they are unable to sell their homes, and businesses will be fleeing the already depressed town.
Would this have occurs if the demographics of Flint were different, if it were a more white, more middle-class, more “glitzy” city? Studies show that people of color, particularly Black and Latino populations and the poor are more likely to be exposed to toxic chemicals, waste, and fumes than any other group in the country. This disparate in exposure lies in representation of disadvantaged groups in the government, segregation by race and class through processes such as red-lining, and biases that run deep within this country, allowing people to be “othered” and have their health and well-being overlooked. If Flint, were a wealthier, suburban town, there is no way upwards of 10,000 children would have been exposed to poison and actively told by their government that nothing was wrong for 2 years. Sadly, this crisis speaks not only to lack of ethics present in our current political system, but also to inequalities present in our nation in terms of race and class. As public awareness of the Flint water crisis grows, public outcry is growing and pressure on the Michigan government to own up to their mistakes is growing.
The long-term effects of allowing a population that already faces extreme poverty, low life expectancy, dramatic economic depression, high murder rate are going to be imaginably more dire and exponentiated by the water crisis. Not only was lead present in the water, but the other chemicals that were ingested at toxic amounts by the population, particularly vulnerable groups such as children, elders and those with chronic illness have been hit the hardest. Doctors say that in children serious developmental problems and delays can occur due to exposure, and this prolonged exposure only intensifies these issues. Therapies and medicine can aid the recovery process, but the damage that has been done is irreversible. The people of Flint will likely strongly distrust the government and emergency institutions set in places to protect them, and this distrust of both the local and state government will last for generations. The government officials failed these people who were already struggling in the name of the bottom line. A crime was committed against the people of Flint, and was continually perpetrated by leadership who continues to admit their mistakes in hopes of re-election and campaign dollars, and consistently made poor choices for the people they were responsible for protecting.
Sources
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/01/flint-lead-water-crisis-timeline
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/10-things-about-flint-water-tragedy_b_9132150.html