Water in Flint, Michigan is conisdered toxic waste, yet city council ignores citizens' pleas
Residents of Flint, Michigan received a nasty wake-up call when the city council refused to acknowledge the "cloudy, odorous and rancid" water the citizens were receiving.
In April, 2014, the city was unable to continue a contract to keep receiving water from Detroit and changed their supply to the Flint river as a cost saving measure. Citizens immediately noticed the water quality was terrible, but no one seemed to listen.
The biggest toxin was lead. One study noted that the children in the city with elevated levels of lead in their blood increased from 2.1% to 4%. In some areas, the number increased as high as 6.3%.
Individual children began to be diagnosed with lead poisoning, a problem that can do severe long-term damage, and the community spring into action, running tests of their own. The results were stunning. The average amount of lead in the water was more than 2,400 parts per billion (ppb), substantially higher than levels deemed safe by the EPA. The highest test came back at 13,200 ppb; at 5,000 ppb, water is considered hazardous waste.
All this for residents that pay, on average, $140 a month for their water.
“Flint water is pouring 20 times more lead into the water than Detroit water,” he said. “It’s plain as day; you can see it with your eyes," said Marc Edwards, a professor at Virginia Tech who was involved the Flint Water Study.
The city has been financially destitute which could be a reason the council did not want to act on the problem. Since the revelation, a discussion is now in place to move Flint's water source back to Detroit and $1m in state funding will be appropriated to allow 4,000 residents to purchase water filters.