Vol. 81/No. 11 March 20, 2017
Flint officials say OK to pay for water, but not to drink it
This decision is further proof of the total disdain the propertied rulers and their politicians — Democrats and Republicans alike — have for working people.
“It’s not safe. There’s been no comprehensive testing to say it’s all clear. They’ve simply washed their hands of it,” Claire McClinton, a retired General Motors worker and long-time United Auto Workers member, told the Militant in a phone interview March 4. “We don’t trust the Environmental Protection Agency’s reports on lead, and the filters don’t filter out bacteria.”
Flint’s chief financial officer, David Sabuda, announced the city will now shut off water to people who don’t pay. He said he already has a list of delinquent accounts. Getting your water turned off means you won’t be eligible to have your corroded pipes and fixtures replaced.
“We paid full price for poisoned water a lot longer than we got credits,” said LeeAnne Walters, a former medical assistant, in a March 4 phone interview. “We shouldn’t have to pay for it at all. It’s punishing us for what they did.”
Flint’s water bills are among the highest in the U.S. — even when they were subsidized 65 percent by the state.
“Because I live in a zip code that’s the farthest from the water treatment plant, I’m told I still have to use only bottled water,” Walters said. “I bathe my four kids in bottled water, and I wash their clothes outside the city.”
Walters was one of the first to discover there were high levels of lead in Flint’s water when one of her children was diagnosed with lead poisoning.
Gov’t disregard for working people
Flint’s lead-poisoning crisis started in 2013. The source of the disaster for working people was penny-pinching and callous disregard by elected officials and regulatory agencies at every level — city, state and federal.
A state-appointed manager changed the city’s water supply from Detroit’s Lake Huron to the Flint River in an effort to cut corners. “It’s a historic moment for the city of Flint to return to its roots and use our own river as our drinking water supply,” said Democratic Mayor Dayne Walling in April 2014, as he flipped the switch.
The water Flint had purchased from Detroit for 50 years was treated with additives that form a layer of film inside the pipes, reducing lead leeching out. The state Department of Environmental Quality said Flint didn’t need to add these chemicals to water from the river — even though it was 19 times more corrosive than the treated water from Detroit.
State officials brushed aside findings of elevated lead levels in children’s blood. Lead is linked to serious health and developmental problems in young children, and its effects can be irreversible. Less than six months after the switch, General Motors said it would no longer use Flint water at its engine plant because it was causing corrosion. Still, working people were told it was OK to drink the poisoned water. After kids began getting sick, the public outcry forced authorities to declare a public health emergency in October 2015.
“This was a disaster, but we didn’t do this to ourselves,” Walters said. “Before I trusted the people who get paid to protect us. Now I question things. The problem in Flint would never have been recognized if the community didn’t fight. It’s still not being dealt with.”
“The problem here won’t be solved until 20,000 service lines of pipe are replaced,” McClinton said. “The Army Corps of Engineers should get in here and replace them. And jobs should be created to get it done.”
The health crisis facing working people in Flint — and the rulers’ disdain — isn’t limited to there. “Much of our drinking water infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life,” the American Society of Civil Engineers said in a 2013 report.
At least 3,000 cities and rural areas have lead rates in their water at least double those in Flint.
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