The report also characterized the crisis as a clear-cut example of environmental injustice, as evidenced by the fact that Flint’s poor, largely African American population “did not enjoy the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards as that provided to other communities.” The Michigan attorney general brought criminal charges against two MDEQ employees and the Flint city utilities administrator in April, promising that additional cases would be brought over time. Updates? That change was made in April 2014, and residents immediately registered their concerns about water quality. In September 2015 Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech professor of environmental engineering and an expert on municipal water systems, determined that the corrosiveness of insufficiently treated Flint River water was causing lead to be leached from aging pipes, and doctors at a Flint hospital told residents not to drink city water after blood tests of area children revealed high levels of lead. Due to the importance of food and water safety, plans to create a new regional water system that could bring tap water from the Lake Huron were then instated to set up a water harve… In 2002 Michigan Gov. ... local organizations observed that high concentrations of chloride caused the water to be orange and that the water contained high levels of lead. The Flint water crisis is the result of failed policy, bad choices and indifference by politicians and other state officials. All our content may be republished or reused for free, except for most photographs, illustrations, and videos. More significantly, the corrosiveness of the water leached lead out of old pipes used throughout the city. What caused the Flint Michigan water crisis? Get your first order at 15% off! But officials dismissed their concerns. During the crisis, scientists, doctors, activists, and journalists worked together with local families to highlight the water contamination and related issues. In 2001, Washington, D.C. changed how it treated drinking water, and lead levels dramatically rose. The lack of a protective layer in the iron pipes can cause a similar oxidation reaction to the one occurring in the lead pipes: Fe (s) → Fe 2+ (aq) + 2 e – Strategic Communications Officer. REVEALED: Flint's deadly water crisis which claimed 10 lives was caused by lead pipes with holes like SWISS CHEESE. Flint, Michigan. The root cause of the Flint lead crisis was corrosion, the new study confirms. WASHINGTON -- Though Michigan Gov. The Flint water crisis started in 2014 when city officials switched the city’s water source from the Detroit River to the Flint River to save money but failed to add anti-corrosive agents to the water. Debates 2020. Rebecca Cook / Reuters 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. Democrats Forget the Flint Water Crisis Was Caused by a Bold New Infrastructure Plan Michigan and Flint authorities thought switching water providers would be a … But it was just the beginning of the city’s devastating water crisis. Our ENL Writers can help. It should be possible to add protective chemicals to Flint’s water, neutralize the problem chemicals in the river water and have safe water in a couple of months. The Flint, Michigan, water crisis is the result of years of ruthless policies that have disproportionately affected people of color. Omissions? The Flint water crisis was born that day. Dr. Hanna-Attisha, a leading pediatrician and clinician at Hurley Medical Center, was one of the first to test and discover high levels of lead in Flint’s water. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In January 2015 the city informed residents that elevated levels of carcinogenic trihalomethanes had been detected in Flint’s water but insisted that it remained safe to drink. In cities around the country, water authorities are “sold some toxic financial instruments to refinance infrastructure or water supply, end up with high interest rates the city can’t pay and residents have to pay more in water bills,” Warren explained. The series of emergency managers who oversaw Flint as the crisis unfolded are the most directly responsible for using Flint River water in the first place. Flint Water Crisis: What Happened and Why? Do my homework. How The Flint Water Crisis Caused Serious Unseen Harm To Communities Of Color At the core of this catastrophe was not the erosion of pipes or the adulteration of the water. "The truth is, there are many communities with potentially dangerous lead problems," Snyder said in his testimony before the House Oversight Committee. This pneumonia is caused by the bacterium Legionella pneumophila, which grows in water and was found in the Flint water supply. Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice320 E 43rd StNew York, NY 10017USA. Flint was to join the Karegnondi Water Authority but drew water from the Flint River in the interim period. Up until about April 2014, Flint had been totally reliant upon the water from Lake Huron purchased through Detroit (Foley). First you have to understand how Flint got its water before the crisis. The water crisis in Flint Michigan is of epidemic proportions. Experts noted that such a move would do nothing to address the damage already done to Flint’s water supply infrastructure by more than 18 months of corrosive water. Buy essay. Doctors explain the long-term health effects of Flint water crisis. What happened in Flint has serious implications for other cities struggling with financial strain and unelected emergency managers: for example, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Detroit. Rick Snyder's office, January 14, 2016. What are the health risks for people using the water? Flint water crisis. By October 2014, General Motors had stopped using Flint’s municipal water out of concern that it corroded sensitive engine parts. How The Federal Government Botched Flint's Water Crisis. A January 2016 protest in Lansing, Michigan over the Flint water crisis. On April 16, 2014, the Flint Water Service Center (FWSC) switched from distributing drinking water from Detroit Water and Sewage Department (DWSD) to treating water at their own facility in Flint. The U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee convened a series of hearings in February to investigate the debacle in Flint. The health and welfare of Flint families lay in the hands of an unaccountable city government that resisted addressing the crisis until it was brought to national attention. To MSNBC’s Dorian Warren, the problem is not only unaccountable state governments, but Wall Street. Pay for essay. Flint’s water when it was safe. Although it was once a thriving industrial centre, the city of Flint in souteastern Michigan struggled economically following the closing of several General Motors automobile manufacturing plants in the 1980s and ’90s. Health and Science How one economic decision in Flint caused a health crisis. This was intended as a short-term money-saving measure as the city prepared to connect to the new regional water system. In this session, public health advocate and author of “What the Eyes Don’t See,” Monna Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, FAAP, will discuss the implications the Flint water crisis has had on diverse and underserved children. In conclusion, the Flint water crisis emerged due to various setbacks that majorly can be linked with the management department of the water systems in Flint town. This can be done by using the water for showers, laundry, toilets, dishes, lawn and garden. Personal statement. Flint water crisis. Source link . When Gover­nor Snyder installed an emergency manager whose job was to impose austerity, he instructed that … The crisis in Flint is a result of a failure at all levels of government. A spike in the incidence of Legionnaire disease in Flint led Genesee county health officials to question whether the outbreak might be connected to contamination of the water supply, but attempts to investigate the matter were met with resistance at the city and state level. Most of America knows the Flint water crisis of the last four years has become quite the epidemic and the more we learn the worse things seem to become. in history from Michigan State University in 1995. "It's like an insult," Nayirrah Shariff of the group Flint Rising said of the $600 million settlement, adding that there should be lifetime health benefits for victims of the water crisis. Share; Tweet Reddit Flipboard Email How lead poisoning harms children 01:39. In March 2015 a test of the drinking water in one Flint home uncovered concentrations of lead more than 25 times higher than the level deemed actionable by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); subesequent testing found lead levels that far exceeded the EPA’s criteria for classifying water as hazardous waste. In late October Snyder announced the creation of an independent task force to review the events leading up to the crisis. Technol., Article ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b04034. Flint Michigan’s water crisis is a national crisis of eroding proportion. Flint’s elected city council held an almost entirely symbolic vote to return the city to DWSD as its water provider, but the measure was rejected as “incomprehensible” by the emergency manager. The water crisis in Flint, Michigan has been going on for almost two years. It is located near the Flint River and is the principal city in the region of Mid-Michigan. Lead can seriously impact cognitive and learning abilities, even shifting the IQ curves of children—meaning the ability of high-achieving children in Flint might decline, and others may well need remedial or special education services. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. For example, the administration of the city and water agencies in Flint kept giving the residents empty promises instead of taking initiative and investigating the real causes of water contamination. As early as April 2015 EPA regional manager Miguel Del Toral had expressed his concerns about the absence of any corrosion control measures in Flint’s water treatment process, but Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) insisted that no additional steps were necessary to mitigate the levels of lead and copper in Flint’s water. The root cause of the Flint lead crisis was corrosion, the new study confirms. The DWSD offered to reconnect Flint to its system, but Flint’s emergency manager declined, and internal communciations within Snyder’s administration revealed that cost remained the primary decision driver as public health concerns began to mount. Rick Snyder (R) admits that his government caused the Flint water crisis, he told Congress on Thursday morning it's something that could happen anywhere that has lead pipes. The Flint water crisis did not begin on April 25th, 2014, when the city switched its water supply from Detroit’s system, tapping Lake Huron to its own on the Flint River. Together with nine other foundations, Ford committed $125 million to the recovery efforts in Flint. After the switch, residents complained about the … After confirming those results, on October 1 Genesee county declared a public health emergency in Flint, urging residents not to drink any water drawn from the Flint River, but the following day Snyder’s office issued a press release claiming that Flint’s water was safe to drink and that elevated lead levels were caused by lead pipes in household plumbing. Toward the end of last year, headlines blared news of the high levels of lead turning up in the blood of children in Flint, Michigan, a struggling industrial suburb of Detroit.Early coverage hewed closely to what had caused the problems in Flint itself—a switch in its water supplies, and the political and cost-saving machinations that drove that decision. More information: Flint Water Crisis Caused By Interrupted Corrosion Control: Investigating "Ground Zero" Home, Environ. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stressed that there was no “safe” level for lead exposure and that the consquences of lead poisoning were lifelong and often debilitating. Because of Flint’s method of treating Flint River water, it experienced problems with elevated trihalomethanes, a regulated class of disinfection by-products that are known carcinogens. Follow the timeline of where it all started and know where the situation is at present. As Flint, Mich., prepares to host a Democratic presidential debate on March 6, the candidates are talking about the city’s tainted-water crisis. The switch caused water distribution pipes to corrode and leach lead and other contaminants into municipal drinking water. Health and Science How one economic decision in Flint caused a health crisis. On January 16 U.S. Pres. Will we rise to meet them? This includes fighting to remove the emergency manager laws in many states. The video is a clip from Fahrenheit 11/9, a documentary produced by Michael Moore, and shows scenes from a 2016 speech Obama gave in Flint. Flint water crisis, public health crisis (April 2014–June 2016) involving the municipal water supply system of Flint, Michigan, which resulted in residents being exposed to dangerous levels of lead. More information: Flint Water Crisis Caused By Interrupted Corrosion Control: Investigating "Ground Zero" Home, Environ.Sci. The Root Cause of the Flint Water Crisis - Plymouth-Canton, MI - The art of problem solving requires that we analyze all contributing factors ; Flint Water Crisis ; Michigan Public Service Commission Flint is found to be in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act because of the level of total trihalomethanes, or TTHM, in the water. Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Flint, immediately releasing $5 million in federal funds to assist in relief efforts and authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate the state and local response. Later that month, dangerous levels of lead were detected in two water fountains on the University of Michigan-Flint campus. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. The way Flint mishandled water treatment is the primary cause of the water crisis. The Interim Co-Lead Class Counsel in the Flint Water Crisis case seek compensation for all members of the putative class action, which includes individuals, businesses, and homeowners. Therefore, iron pipes in the water distribution system began corroding immediately after the initial switch from Detroit water. What caused the Flint water crisis and what cities everywhere can learn from it, The top of a water tower is seen at the Flint Water Plant. For 50 years, Flint had purchased its water from Detroit, its neighbor 70 miles to south. Are there other areas in the United States that experience similar or worse drinking water problems? John Engler declared a state of financial emergency in the city, and for the next two years, executive power in Flint was wielded by a manager selected by Engler. Looking for a Similar Assignment? In September 2015 Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech professor of environmental engineering and an expert on municipal water systems, determined that the corrosiveness of insufficiently treated Flint River water was causing lead to be leached from aging pipes, and doctors at a Flint hospital told residents not to drink city water after blood tests of area children revealed high levels of lead. Corrections? Since the discovery of discolored water in peoples tap water we’ve found out a lot of the affects switching to the Flint River had on the residents of Flint. During the crisis, at least a dozen people died from Legionnaires’ disease, and another 87 were taken ill. The conclusions drawn of those hearings largely broke down along political lines, with House Democrats finding fault with Snyder—a Republican—and House Republicans criticizing the EPA for its failure to intervene in a timely manner. Michael Ray oversees coverage of European history and military affairs for Britannica. © 2020 Ford Foundation, some rights reserved. https://www.britannica.com/event/Flint-water-crisis, Natural Resources Defense Council - Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to Know, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Flint River is naturally high in corrosive chloride. The Flint, Michigan, water crisis is the result of years of ruthless policies that have disproportionately affected people of color. But of course, the community’s story is far from over.We’ve explained before that the Flint water crisis is about more than poisoned water. On April 25, 2014, the City of Flint, Michigan changed their municipal water supply source from the Detroit-supplied Lake Huron water to the Flint River. Flint is known as the largest city in Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Photo Credit: Rebecca Cook © REUTERS/Newscom, Ten philanthropies will help Flint recover and rise from water crisis, Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, $125 million to the recovery efforts in Flint, Flint water crisis is about more than poisoned water, The crisis in Flint is about more than poisoned water. Little has been said about the cause of the Flint River pollution itself; the river was polluted by industry that has not been held accountable. As a result, lead exposure caused irreversible damage to children’s growth, development, and overall quality of life. But you probably shouldn’t drink it in the meantime. began in 2014 when the drinking water source for the city of Flint, Michigan was changed to the Flint River. We used to have one school nurse in Flint and now have ten because of our advocacy. Over the following months, residents were twice advised to boil water because of the presence of dangerous levels of bacteria, and General Motors announced that the use of Flint River water at its plant was causing corrosion on newly machined engine parts. The Flint water crisis may be the most serious lead contamination in drinking water to date, but other water supplies across the United States have been affected, too. Technol., Article ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b04034. Flint’s Water Crisis. Why was this problem so difficult to control? Near the end of 2015, the state began to realize the trouble they were so direly in. He earned a B.A. Human action has triggered a vast cascade of environmental problems that now threaten the continued ability of both natural and human systems to flourish. In a community already struggling with poverty, crime, and a lack of resources, lead poisoning exacerbates existing burdens. Within a week, however, Snyder had announced a $12 million plan to switch back to DWSD as Flint’s water supplier. The water in Flint resident Lee-Anne Walters’s home first tested at 104 ppb, a result the city didn’t take seriously. In 2017, many of the firms listed above filed a complaint against the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on behalf of individuals who lodged administrative complaints against the EPA. “Cost-cutting decisions like those made in Flint to switch to a cheaper water source [happen] partly because of Wall Street, and the outcome is then the criminal poisoning of communities.” We need to redesign official systems and structures so that responsiveness and accountability are built in. Residents like Walters spoke out, bringing bottles of discolored water from their homes to city meetings. Dayne Walling, the mayor, said, taking a gulp of river water. What was the underlying cause of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan? The city’s financial doldrums continued, however, and in 2011 Michigan Gov. If the "dumb and dangerous" … In December 2015 Flint’s newly elected mayor declared a state of emergency, and Snyder’s task force released its initial report, in which primary blame for the public health disaster in Flint was assigned to the MDEQ. The water crisis in Flint, Michigan has been well documented—from its effects on the health of the community to its origins with an unaccountable emergency manager who shifted the city’s water source to save money. The Flint Water Crisis - What Caused It? The iron that was released from the corroding pipes reacted w… As a result, says Hanna-Attisha, “Our senator already has a bill for universal Headstart for Flint kids because we know the effects of lead on early education. Due to insufficient water treatment, over 100,000 residents were potentially exposed to high levels of lead in the drinking water. According to EPA standards, the official “action level” for lead in water is 15 ppb (parts per billion), indicating serious lead contamination. Flint has relatively high levels of lead in its drinking water, a cause for legitimate concern. The matter of blame appeared to be settled conclusively in March 2016, however, when Snyder’s nonpartisan task force released its blistering final report. In accomplishing this, the source waters changed from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Sci. Flint’s recent water crisis is a stinging reminder that the infrastructure we often take for granted has many vulnerabilities. There is no acceptable level of lead: any amount is considered toxic. Solving the critical environmental problems of global warming, water scarcity, pollution, and biodiversity loss are perhaps the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Susan Masten. Jan. 2, 2015: Disinfection Byproducts Detected. Snyder declared a state of emergency for Genesee county in January 2016 and activated the National Guard to assist with water distribution. We also need to analyze the incentives within those institutions that led officials to repeatedly ignore the concerns of Flint residents, and consider how we can transform government to be more transparent and accountable. Rick Snyder appointed the first of a series of unelected emergency managers to run the city. This level of civic engagement is a hopeful sign. Those managers, who reported directly to the Michigan state treasury department and not the citizens of Flint, decided to switch the city’s water supply from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) to the Flint River as a cost-savings measure. The immediate cause was the contamination of the municipal water supply with toxic lead and dangerous bacteria, but the true cause is widely considered to be colossal mismanagement and unsound cost-cutting measures imposed on the city. In June 2016, more than two years after the switch to Flint River water and eight months after the return to DWSD, the EPA announced that water in Flint was once again safe to drink, provided an NSF-approved filter was used to remove the remaining traces of lead.