The Flint, Michigan Water Crisis began in April of 2014 causing lasting effects on the citizens that relied on their city. Over the summer, people in Flint, Michigan, discovered they had been drinking tap water with dangerously high levels of lead, a neurotoxin that can cause miscarriages and damage children’s developing brains. It all started when the city switched its water supply from Detroit’s system to the Flint River. The switch was made as a cost-saving measure for the struggling city. Doesn’t sound to bad does it? So what turned this seemingly positive event into the crisis it is today? Perhaps the lead facts that the city officials hid from unknowing citizens. Soon after the switch residents began complaining about the water color, taste and the odor. Several people began suffering from rashes and expressed concerns about bacteria. The city responded by stating the “Water is safe to drink”, it was until September that the city issued a boil-water advisories after coliform bacteria was detected in tap water. In October the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality blamed cold weather, aging pipes, and a population decline for the water problems. The same month that General Motors in Flint stop using municipal water due to it corroding car parts.

In February the governor states, “It’s clear the nature of the threat was communicated poorly. It’s also clear that folks in Flint are concerned about other aspects of their water — taste, smell and color being among the top complaints”. Ultimately stating that their is no threat to public health even though a test revealed 104 parts per billion of lead detected in drinking water, and a second testing in March detects 397 parts per billion of lead in drinking water. Even after learning how much lead had leaked into the water supply by March it took until October for the governor to urge residents to stop drinking water after government epidemiologists validate Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s finding of high lead levels. Mr. Snyder orders the distribution of filters, the testing of water in schools, and the expansion of water and blood testing. The state government admitted in October that its own actions had contributed to the public health emergency, and several state officials resigned in disgrace at the end of December. On January 5, 2016 Mr. Snyder (Michigan Governor) declares a state of emergency for Genesee County, which includes Flint and on January 16, 2016 President Obama declares a state of emergency in the city and surrounding county, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide up to $5 million in aid. President Obama also states, “I would be besides myself if I were a parent in that city”. As you can see the leaders of this town did not handle the information properly and put their whole city at risk.

So in the end who pays for the damages done? Lynna Kaucheck handed a stack of papers to a staffer outside Flint’s mayor’s office. “This is 21,000 petition signatures from people across the country calling on you to issue a moratorium on drinking water bills,” Kaucheck told Flint City Administrator Natasha Henderson as she handed her the petitions. Kaucheck is with the group Food and Water Watch. She says it’s wrong to make people in Flint pay for water they can’t drink. The governor’s plan would provide credit for water bills dating back to April of 2014, when the city’s tap water source was switched to the Flint River. It was the failure to properly treat that river water that damaged the city’s pipes which continue to leach lead into the drinking water. “The city, the state, the local government officials, the governor, all know that this was catastrophically wrong,” Murphy told reporters Tuesday, “And that the citizens should not be made to add insult to injury by having to pay for dangerous, dirty, non-drinkable, non-usable water.” Neither the governor’s plan nor the lawsuit will bring immediate relief to Flint residents who still can’t trust the water coming out of their kitchen faucet and are still getting a water and sewer bill in the mail every month. It’s sad that this is the reality for Flint residents now especially because it easily could of been prevented if officials had followed the necessary steps at the beginning before the switch occurred.

Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/21/us/flint-lead-water-timeline.html
http://michiganradio.org/post/flints-water-crisis-who-pays#stream/0
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/flint-lead-water-epa_us_569522a8e4b086bc1cd5373c
http://flintwaterstudy.org/