Introduction

Clean water is supposed to be a basic necessity available to everyone in the United States, but this doesn’t seem to be the case in Flint, Michigan, U.S. There is a Flint water crisis due to contamination in drinking water. This all started in 2011 when Flint was broke and many industries had to be shut down, causing more than half the population to move. Flint was in deep and needed to start saving money and this is why financial managers were appointed to come up with ways to save money. In April 2014, Flint decided to change from their current water source from Detroit River and Lake Huron to the Flint River so that they could save 2-3 million dollars a year. This was the first mistake that led to disaster in Flint.

Flint River and Lead Poisoning

The Flint River water is very corrosive and led to many problems concerning lead contamination. The combination of the Flint River’s water and the aging lead pipes in Flint didn’t work together
very well and this caused lead to leach into the water supply. Meanwhile, the Flint water was being drunk and used by many residents in the state, including children, infants, and pregnant women. Lead poisoning is especially dangerous to children, has irreversible effects and no amount of it is safe. For children, lead poisoning can cause learning difficulties, reduced IQ, speech and language problems, and etc. Many children in Flint will have to deal with the effects the Flint water will have on them in the future and parents will always feel the guilt of even exposing their children to lead in the first place. Unfortunately, this all could have been avoided if the state had thought to apply corrosion inhibitors to the lead pipes which would have cost $100 a day, but at the end they were too careless to do so.

Environmental Racism and Flint

Environmental racism is placement of low-income or minority communities in proximity of environmentally hazardous or degraded environments, such as toxic waste, pollution and urban decay. Many residents in Flint believe that the Flint water crisis is a case of environmental racism because more than half of the residents there are African-Americans and about 40% are in poverty. Another reason citizens believe they have been victims of environmental racism is because when they complained about the odor, taste, and color of the water; they were either reassured that the water was safe or even sometimes ignored. Another clue to the government that the water was corrosive and dangerous was when General Motors (a car company) complained that the water was corroding their car parts. This should been a sure sign that if the cars couldn’t deal with the corrosion, how would the citizens take it. A researcher (Marc Edwards) from Virginia Tech has proven that the state has also altered documents that would have shown that there were toxic levels of lead in the water. One home shows a level of lead almost as twice as toxic as what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Virginia Tech call toxic waste. Even with all this research, people still are paying for what is really poison. At the end, even though the government might not admit this, there is something in the water… and it might just be racism!

Flint Water and the Legionnaires’ Disease

The Legionnaires’ disease (a waterborne disease) is a form of bacterial pneumonia that has been linked to the Flint water contamination. On January 13th 2016, Rick Synder told of 87 cases of the Legionnaires’ disease that were reported during June 2014 to November 2015. This disease resulted in the death of 10 citizens. Even though the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) says there is no clear link between this disease and the Flint River contamination, Marc Edwards says that the Flint River water contributed to the spike in this disease.
Now the question is, did the Flint River contamination truly lead to the Legionnaires’ disease and is there more epidemics in store for the future? This question is still yet to be answered and the coming years will show the effects of this crisis.

Conclusion

The Flint water crisis has officially been issued as a federal emergency on January 5th 2016 and help is being given to the residents. Organizations such as the Red Cross, National Guard and etc. are helping by handing out bottled water to residents and local doctors like Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha have been helping the children by checking lead levels in blood. Residents are laying lawsuits on those involved in the Flint water crisis like Rick Synder and are trying to serve justice, but the effects of this crisis are irreversible and the families can’t even sell their houses because no one wants to live in Flint. At the end, this could have been avoided with stricter observation and kindness on the part of the state, but what’s done is done and you can’t change that. All you can do is work towards a tomorrow that’s better than yesterday!