Vol. 81/No. 23      June 12, 2017

 

Flint officials: Pay for tainted water or we take your home

 
After dealing with more than three years of undrinkable water, poisoned by government decisions on the city and state level, residents in Flint, Michigan, have been told by city authorities to pay their water bills or face foreclosure. The water is still suspect.

Some of the bills total nearly $1,000. Those with half a year or more of unpaid bills were given a one-month deadline.

“This is absolutely appalling after what’s happened here,” Flint resident LeeAnne Walters, one of the leaders of the fight for clean water, told the Militant in a phone interview May 11. “City officials now say the water is safe. But it’s not at a point where people will drink it from the tap. In our neighborhood we use bottled water only.”

In April 2014, in a scheme to save money that was supported by many local officials, Emergency City Manager Darnell Earley — appointed by Michigan Gov. Richard Snyder and given the power to make all financial decisions for the local government — switched the city’s water supply from Detroit to the heavily contaminated Flint River.

Even though Flint River water was 19 times more corrosive than the water from Detroit, the state Department of Environmental Quality said Flint didn’t need to add a simple corrosion inhibitor to keep lead from leaching out of the pipes. The procedure would have cost just $100 a day.

With the switch, lead levels soared. Young children are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning, which affects brain development. City officials insisted the water was safe to drink.

A study published in the American Journal of Public Health last year found that the number of children with elevated lead levels in their blood doubled after the switch.

“Our lives will never be the same,” said Walters. “Children are struggling health-wise and an emotional toll has been taken. I see the effects every day this has had on my 6-year-old.”

As anger grew among working people and the scandal got national press, they packed City Council meetings, organized forums and held protests, often holding bottles of the smelly and discolored water, forcing the city to switch back to Detroit water in October 2015. Five months later the state said they would begin replacing lead pipes in Flint. Today some 20,000 residences still are waiting for the switch.

“It’s not only lead pipes,” said Walters. “There’s leaky valves, the water mains have to be replaced. The whole system needs to be fixed.”

In March state officials announced they would no longer subsidize water for Flint residences, ending a 65 percent reduction on water bills. Working people in Flint “pay eight times that of the national average,” Walters said.

Authorities claim that more than 90 percent of drinking water samples are now below the Environmental Protection Agency’s acceptable lead level of 15 parts per billion. But tests throughout Flint neighborhoods show otherwise.

At Victoria Marx’s home lead levels tested at over 75 ppb. “Marx said she was offered replacement fixtures,” reported the Detroit Free Press March 24, “but said her kitchen faucet can’t be replaced without ripping out a section of her kitchen wall. She said she was told she would have to pay to repair the wall herself, and as a part-time retail worker, she can’t afford that.”

“The biggest thing is for people to realize this is not just happening in Flint, but across the U.S.,” said Walters, and workers must “protect themselves and protect their kids.”

Tests conducted between December and February in New York City elementary schools showed high lead levels. One school in Brooklyn had levels of 15,000 ppb. Authorities tried to cover up the problem by running the water for two hours the night before the test.  
 
 
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