Narratives

"What Le(a)d to the Flint Water Crisis"

Caroline Bosch, Cameron Waters, Olivia Street, Dana Leavitt, Mackenzie Howe, Chris Fitzgerald

The water crisis in Flint, Michigan originally began in 2013 when the state treasurer, Andy Dillon, authorized a switch from sourcing Flint’s water from Lake Huron in Detroit to the town’s local Flint River. This was supposed to save them $200 million over 25 years. Immediately after this switch, local residents began complaining about their water smelling, looking and tasting quite different from normal. Officials had failed to install corrosion inhibitors in the pipes, and by this time supply pipes had sustained major corrosion and was leaching lead into the water. In 2015, the EPA tested a resident’s water and discovered her water contained 13,200ppb of lead despite the EPA’s limit of 15ppb for safe lead concentrations in residential water. In addition to lead leaking into water sources, unsafe traces of iron and too many disinfectants were also found. The state wasn’t treating the water with anti-corrosive agents which in turn lead to drinking water eroding the iron pipes, causing the water to turn a dark brown.

In August 2014, E. coli bacteria were found in the water; this problem was solved by treating the water with chlorine. However, the level of trihalomethanes proved to be carcinogenic for humans, and in January 2015, Flint was found to be in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act. In January of 2016, President Obama declared that Flint was in a state of emergency. In response, the federal government, lead by FEMA distributed 9 million liters of clean drinking water and 50,000 filters to Michigan citizens. Furthermore, the CDC and EPA have offered blood lead testing for children under the age of six and have expanded federal coverage of diseases linked to sustained lead exposure (Garunay, 2016). A class action lawsuit was filed against the city of Flint, on behalf tens of thousands of citizens, who claimed that city officials violated the safe drinking water act, crippling citizens with lead toxicity diseases. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that most plaintiffs will receive just compensation (Yan, 2017).

Lead is a neurotoxin, meaning it causes skin lesions as well as hair, vision and memory loss. Due to the change in water source, the percentage of Flint children with elevated blood-lead levels may have risen from about 2.5% in 2013 to as much as 6% in 2016. High blood lead levels are especially harmful to children and pregnant women, and can cause "learning disabilities, behavioral problems and mental retardation," according to the World Health Organization.

21% OF FLINT RESIDENCES WERE DIAGNOSED WITH LEGIONNAIRES DISEASE IN 2014 AND 2015 DUE TO WATER CONTAMINATION