History Of the Flint Michigan Water Crisis:
The Flint Michigan Water Crisis was a central story on almost every news station approximately two years ago.The problem of contaminated water began in April of 2014 when the city decided to switch its water supply to the Flint River. The city never tested the water to see if it would cause corrosion to the pipes and decided to use a wait-and-see strategy. It was May when people from Flint started complaining about the quality of the water while many city officials denied the fact that there was any problem with the water. By the time it was August they found that there were E. coli and Total Coliform Bacteria detected in the water which forced many residents to start boiling their water before use. The corrosion was so bad for the pipes that General Motors, a major automobile manufacturer didn’t want to risk their cars corroding due to the water that they were using from the Flint River. As you can see below there is an image of two nails, the top one rinsed in Detroit’s water supply then left to sit for a month while the bottom was rinsed in Flint’s water supply and left to sit for a month.
Courtesy of FlintWaterStudy.org
In January of 2015 Flint’s water supply was violating the Safe Drinking Water Act because it had a high level of disinfection byproducts that were created when chlorine mixed with organic materials in the water. In April of 2015, a state agency told the EPA that Flint had not implemented any corrosion control treatment. Nothing had changed in over a year while many people from Flint continued to complain about their water. In August of 2015, a team from Virginia Tech travelled to Flint to test the levels of lead in the water. Dr Marc Edwards, a member of the Virginia Tech team said: “The levels that we have seen in Flint are some of the worst that I have seen in more than 25 years working in the field,”. It was not until September of 2015 when the city released a released a lead advisory for the city. The city offered free water filters among others to the people of Flint. It was October when they decided to switch back to the Detroit water supply which they originally used.
It was too late for them to switch back as most of the pipes in the city were already corroded and would continue to cause harm. In December the mayor of Flint declared the State of Emergency. Many state regulation officials retired right after this happened. In January of 2016 was when President Obama declared the State of Emergency for Flint Michigans water supply. In February of 2016 many city officials testified about the quality of Flint’s water and what happened and what should have been done. The most important was Governor Snyder who said “This was a failure of government at all levels. Local, state and federal officials — we all failed the families of Flint.” In March the city came up with the plan to replace public water fixtures and lead service lines. In April of 2016, the water was still considered unsafe to drink and the public was forced to use water filters in order to drink the water. Over the next few months of 2016, nine officials were charged as criminals in court for their actions to conceal the high levels of lead in the water and the repercussions that can come from drinking this water. This was considered to be the end of the Flint Michigan water crisis but TIME magazine released an article in January of 2017 saying that the problems with the water have not been completely fixed. Although the water quality has increased drastically after switching back to Detroit’s Water supply, there still is much more to be done as many of the pipes were still corroded despite the use of phosphates in the water that were supposed to help remove the corrosion.
The Repercussions of the Flint Water Crisis:
The contaminated water in Flint Michigan was found to be extremely dangerous to pregnant women and children under the age of 6 and it could cause mental retardation and other health risks. It is estimated that the water crisis may cost over $4oo million to deal with the long-term social costs along with other costs just for replacing pipes and the number of water bottles that were purchased for the citizens which ended up costing tens of millions of dollars. It is amazing the amount of money and harm that comes from trying to save a few dollars by switching to a new water supply. The city is poverty stricken with over 40% of the population considered to be living in poverty which makes sense for the government to try to save money but it is not worth putting the people at risk to health issues.
http://time.com/4634937/flint-water-crisis-criminal-charges-bottled-water/
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/20/465545378/lead-laced-water-in-flint-a-step-by-step-look-at-the-makings-of-a-crisis