Flint Water Crisis: Bottled

The water crisis in Flint, Mich., has been extensively covered by most, if not all, major news networks. All three of Montana’s main newspapers have covered the topic, Time ran a cover story, and the New York Times did a feature piece. In short, the bulk of the facts are public knowledge. But, when subjected to the onslaught of information, it can be hard to keep everything straight.

Jacoby Collins, 21, is a Flint native who has lived in Glasgow for the last five years. We discussed the Flint water crisis at length, and his frustration with the situation was clear. He lamented the fact that Americans took no time to rally behind France after the Paris attack in November 2015, but when a calamity struck in our own country, the reaction has been miniscule in comparison.

How did the water in Flint become so contaminated that in some areas it is technically as dangerous as toxic waste? How were thousands of children exposed to high amounts of lead?

After his re-election, Governor Rick Snyder hired emergency city managers to manage debt. In April 2014, Flint’s emergency manager switched their water supply from the Detroit system to the Flint River. This move was temporary, in order to get Flint to another water system that was in the process of being built, with construction finalization set for 2016. The decision was made in order to save $5 million.

We now know that officials decided against including an anti-corrosion additive, which would have cost about one hundred dollars a day, in a bid to save money. Without this, the water essentially ate the lead pipes from the inside out, leaching extremely high amounts of lead into the water.

Immediately, locals began to complain about the taste, smell and color of the water. In response to these complaints, Snyder’s spokesperson said that federal law, “does not regulate the aesthetic values of water.” Over the next 18 months, the people of Flint reported cases of anemia, body lesions and hair loss from drinking and bathing in the toxic water.

In the nearly two years that the people of Flint were being poisoned, the cases of Legionnaire’s Disease, a waterborne pneumonia-like illness, shot up, killing 10 people and hospitalizing over 60 more.

In September 2014, the state issued an advisory for the people of Flint to boil their water before drinking, but the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has said that boiling lead-contaminated water does nothing to get rid of the lead and can, in fact, make the lead more highly concentrated due to water evaporation. At this time, the state was issuing water filters and advising people to drink bottled water - which, to a poverty-stricken population, had to have been an insulting proposal.

In October 2014, only six months after the initial switch, General Motors reported that the water was corroding their engines. They, and only they, were hooked back up to the Detroit water system. The public was not informed and their complaints were still ignored.

Detroit offered to hook them up to their system again but emergency manager Jerry Ambrose declined the offer. Officials indicated to the governor that there was no imminent threat to public health, though in evidence from released e-mails, it is now known that Snyder’s aides have been very much aware of the lead in the water since March 2015.

Why did this happen?

Flagrant disrespect of a population leads to this kind of irresponsible decision making. Flint has a population of 102,000. Sixty percent are African American and 40 percent are under the poverty line. When the city council of Flint voted to return to the Detroit water system in  March of 2015, their emergency manager overturned the decision. By hiring unelected officials with unrestrained responsibility over a city, Governor Snyder revoked Flint’s democracy.

The people of Flint knew that something was wrong and from April 2014 until the water was switched back in October of 2015, they were ignored. Governor Snyder declared a state of emergency on Jan. 7, 2016.

At this point, all 9,000 children living in Flint are believed to have been exposed to extremely high amounts of lead. In a city that is already struggling so much, this is doubly problematic.

Collins says that living in Flint he was surrounded by a strong community. His father, grandmother, cousins and other family still live in the area. About the way the people in his city were treated, he says, “The disrespect is offensive. They look down on the lower class,” and blames the problem on “blind negligence.”

When I asked what he thought about how these irresponsible decisions may have been influenced by the minority race and economic situation of the people affected, Collins immediately replied, “I agree. I totally agree.” He says that too often, when officials make decisions for disaffected people, they don’t have that sense of urgency. “[The issue] doesn’t hit home.”

It is undeniable that the people of Flint were treated with disrespect during this terrible ordeal, and it is unforgivable for the rest of America to not be informed of their situation. Too often, when corners are cut the results happen out of sight, to people already marginalized in our society.

We should all be angry that this happened, but empathy takes time and effort. Too often it’s easier to ignore the issues. But as Americans and as members of the human race, we are responsible for each other. As a democracy, we are all responsible.

The political climate is extremely volatile right now. When deciding who to vote for in the coming primaries (which, for us Montanans, isn’t for a few months), please take a minute to consider which nominee would see a problem like this and take real action.

To donate to the Flint Water Fund, please visit http://www.unitedwaygenesee.org