Flint Water Crisis: Shameful And Deadly

By Richard B. Muhammad And Audrey F. Muhammad | Last updated: Jan 26, 2016 - 8:01:32 PM

Pastor David Bullock holds up a bottle of Flint water as Michigan State Police hold a barrier to keep protestors out of the Romney Building, where Gov. Rick Snyder's office resides on Jan. 14, in Lansing, Mich. More than 150 people tried to flood into the lobby in protest against Snyder, asking for his resignation and arrest in relation to Flint's water crisis. Photo: AP/Wide World photos

FLINT, Michigan—Arthur Woodson, a longtime resident, sees great irony in the state’s “Pure Michigan” slogan in efforts to draw visitors in light of the pure hell residents are facing with an unhealthy water supply.

In interviews and in writing, he expressed his disgust, anger and outrage at watching residents lug bottles of water shipped in from around the country and sometimes distributed by the National Guard.

Flint’s contaminated water is unsafe to drink because of high lead levels driven by what many see as efforts to save money with too little respect for saving and preserving lives.

“The nightmare is real. The pain is real. The struggle is real for everyone living and working in Flint, Michigan. Pure Michigan? Well, not in Flint. A state surrounded by five Great Lakes has a city within it that does not have an ounce of pure water. No water that is fit to drink, cook with or even bathe in for that matter,” he said.

“Poisoned water full of lead, Legionnaire's and coliform bacteria and who knows what other contaminate is living in it. Bad water. Smelly, discolored, bad tasting, certainly not pure.”

Mr. Woodson recalls advisories to boil water to make it safe, a GM plant that stopped using Flint water because it rusted parts, alongside 18 months of residents suffering rashes, hair loss, anemia, death from Legionnaire’s disease and lead poisoning and abject failures by the governor and state agencies.

“In April 2014, Flint was forced to change it's 50 year water source from the Detroit water system back to the Flint River. That decision was made by an unelected emergency manager appointed by state of Michigan Governor, Rick Snyder. You see, since being unconstitutionally taken over by the state, elected officials in Flint have absolutely no power to make decisions,” said Mr. Woodson.

“That power belongs to Rick Snyder under his newly-created Emergency Manager Law he and the Republican-led government forced through the legislature even after it was voted down by the people of Michigan. So to save money, corrosion controls were not implemented to treat the water and this resulted in lead from old pipes leaching into the water supply creating a man-made disaster of epic proportions,” he noted.

Flint resident Andrew Watson, back right, drops to the floor in tears as Flint Police stand guard at the city council chamber doors, not allowing city residents to listen to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder speak during a news conference in Flint, Mich., Monday, Jan. 11. Snyder pledged that officials would make contact with every household in Flint to check whether residents have bottled water and a filter and want to be tested for lead exposure while his embattled administration works on a long-term solution to the city’s water crisis. Photo: AP/Wide World photos

Next came unheeded complaints about the water and incredibly in June 2015, Flint residents were paying some of the highest water bills in the country; almost eight times the national average, according to Mr. Woodson.

After legal battles water rates decreased but no money has been returned to those who over-paid for water, he said. “Still today, month after month, residents are billed for their monthly poison. In fact, as of September 2016, if residents refused to pay or can't pay for the poisoned water, shut-off notices were sent out to those households,” adding Mr. Woodson, who has been active in mounting protests about the failures in Flint.

The governor has switched Flint back to using Detroit as of Oct. 1, but Flint’s infrastructure is destroyed and $6 million from the state and a $4 million grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, with a discount on water from Detroit, will offset water costs for one year, he said.

“So tell me why are the people in Flint being charged each month for contaminated water when the water bill is already fully covered for 12 months? What's wrong with this picture?” Mr. Woodson asked.

Then there is the trauma of residents turning on faucets or showers knowing the water is poison, carrying the burden of paying for bottled water while paying a water bill, and knowing water fountains at public schools are full of lead, which is especially dangerous to children, Mr. Woodson noted.

“Can you imagine having a governor who waited almost another 60+ days to declare a Federal State of Emergency only after the nation's eyes and ears were opened when 150 protestors from Flint and Detroit showed up at the State Capitol on January 14, 2016, calling for his resignation? The State ignored all warning signs. They ignored rising complaints, ignored factual scientific data from Erin Brockovich and Virginia Tech scientist, ignored Dr. Mona Attisha after she initially discovered elevated lead levels in kids. The MDEQ ignored the process and used the wrong formula to calculate lead rates in the water,” he said.

“Governor Snyder is saying he is sorry? Tell that to all of the people of all ages that are sick, not perfectly healthy people, for example 16 and liver problems,” said Keri Webber, a Flint resident.

“He has not broken toys for these children or just overcharged a tax a little bit! No. He has poisoned 100,000 people. Snyder will be long dead and all these children and families will still be suffering from the actions of his EFM, the MDEQ, EPA and Snyder himself.”

The governor should face incarceration, “prison, yes, for reckless endangerment at the very least,” she said.

Other Flint residents are afraid because they used bottled water for years for drinking and cooking, but now showering in the water may have been unsafe.

Rick Snyder, current Governor of Michigan

Many want Governor Snyder to resign and face criminal charges and want others, including former Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, jailed along with the governor.

Many are upset that those local elected officials they voted for had their power usurped while the political and beauacratic overseers failed to serve and protect voters.

“As Flint has suffered yet another blow to its heart, you think the heart of Flint’s citizens is awash in poverty and blight, surrounded by land so polluted, you can't rip out the concrete slabs left in the wake of General Motors abandoning the city that gave it its birth,” added another resident, writing about the plight of the city.

“You probably think the cesspool of toxicity in the Flint River alone is the reason 100,000 people living in 30,000 homes are now facing the life threatening illnesses they each must endure, that these citizens themselves are to blame because they should have known better than to drink the water you said was safe. Mr. Snyder, the people of the Great

“This actually is an Environmental Catastrophic Disaster of a magnitude beyond explanation,” the writer said.

Flint is nearly 60 percent Black and some of the harder hit areas are overwhelmingly Black and median household income was less than $15,000 in 2014. According to census data, over 41 percent of the city population lived below the poverty level between 2009-2013.

But in Flint the catastrophe is seen as a wide one with little discrimination and little regard for poor people regardless of race and little regard for anyone regardless of race, education or income.

The catastrophe has brought people together in a struggle and there are questions also about current and future property values and income for the city—in addition to the health worries. Who wants to buy a home in Flint considering these issues?

An apology from the governor has done little to assuage fears and emails released by the governor raise the specter of buck passing and blame casting.

A day after doctors reported high levels of lead in Flint children, Gov. Snyder's top aide told him the “real responsibility” for the city's water issues rested with local government officials, emails show.

Then-chief of staff Dennis Muchmore later told the governor that residents were “caught in a swirl of misinformation” about lead contamination and that it was up to city and county leaders to confront the issue, according to the emails, which were released Jan. 20.

“Of course, some of the Flint people respond by looking for someone to blame instead of working to reduce anxiety,” Mr. Muchmore wrote. “We can't tolerate increased lead levels in any event, but it's really the city's water system that needs to deal with it.”

In a Sept. 25 email, Muchmore said he could not "figure out why the state is responsible” before noting that former state Treasurer Andy Dillon had signed off on the city’s plans to build a water pipeline from Lake Huron, which required a temporary switch to the Flint River during construction. So, he explained, “we’re not able to avoid the subject.”

Mr. Muchmore also said two state agencies and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could not “find evidence of a major change” in lead levels.

By early October, the Snyder administration was forced to acknowledge the validity of the lead concerns and help Flint return to the Detroit water system.

The two-term Republican released more than 270 pages of emails a day after his annual State of the State speech in which he apologized again for the emergency and pledged to act. He called the release of the messages—which are exempt from Michigan's public records law—“unprecedented” but necessary so people “know the truth.”

He did not release the emails of his staff, drawing criticism from Democrats and open-government advocates. The rest of the administration is subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

According to Muchmore's emails to Snyder, officials at the Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Health and Human Services felt some people in Flint were trying to turn the lead issue into "a political football," claiming the agencies were underestimating the danger and trying to shift responsibility to the state.

Gov. Snyder has said he was first briefed on the “potential scope and magnitude” of the crisis on Sept. 28. State epidemiologists validated local physicians’ findings on Oct. 1, and the governor said he immediately ordered the distribution of filters along with water and blood testing.

In December, Gov. Snyder learned that the task force he appointed to investigate the crisis had concluded that the Department of Environmental Quality was primarily to blame.

The task force chairman, Ken Sikkema, said in a separate message that the finding was “critical and urgent” and could not be delayed until the group completed its report.

Snyder aide Jarrod Agen told the governor on Dec. 28 that the task force’s “harsh” verdict suggested that personnel changes at the environmental department scheduled for after the holidays should not wait. Agency Director Dan Wyant’s resignation—and the firing of three other staffers—should take effect the next day.

Gov. Snyder has asked President Barack Obama to reconsider the denial of a federal disaster declaration to address the crisis, saying it poses an “imminent and long-term threat” to residents.

President Obama declared an emergency—qualifying the city for $5 million—but concluded that the high lead levels are not a disaster based on the legal requirement that disaster money is intended for natural events such as fires or floods. Gov. Snyder had estimated a need for up to $95 million over a year.

The lead—which can lead to behavior problems and learning disabilities in children and kidney ailments in adults—has left Flint residents unable to drink unfiltered tap water.

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver refused to call for Mr. Snyder’s resignation while at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, D.C., saying investigations should go forward.

“I’m staying focused on what I need to get from him right now,” Gov. Weaver said Jan. 20.

The Michigan House approved Gov. Snyder’s request for $28 million more in the short term to pay for more filters, bottled water, school nurses and testing and monitoring—on top of $10.6 million allocated in the fall. The money would also replace plumbing fixtures in schools with lead problems and help Flint with unpaid water bills. The measure moves to the Senate for expected action within a week.

Gov. Snyder plans to make a bigger request in his February budget proposal. He also announced the deployment of roughly 130 more National Guard members to the city.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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