By Jack Dugan
Have we forgotten about Flint, Michigan? I would assume that the nearly 100,000 residents who are still afflicted with water insecurity have not. The water crisis has been an ongoing issue since October 2014, if not a latent problem affecting Flint residents for decades, and it has yet to be properly resolved.
While the fight in North Dakota to keep our drinking water clean has been in the limelight, Flint’s tragic story of an already decimated water source has quietly slipped into the back of the room.
According to CNN, the effects of exposure to the lead-infested water “in children include impaired cognition, behavioral disorders, hearing problems, and delayed puberty. In pregnant women, lead is associated with reduced fetal growth. In everyone, lead consumption can affect the heart, kidneys, and nerves. Although there are medications that may reduce the amount of lead in the blood, treatments for the adverse health effects of lead have yet to be developed.”
Why the government, on both a federal and state level, has yet to address this unnecessary collapse of public utility probably lies in their long and imaginative history of not really concerning themselves with the plights of working class people of color. Flint is, after all, 41.6 percent under the poverty line and 56 percent African-American, CNN reports.
So two and a half years later, Flint is still in a state of emergency. Though, progress has been made. Between Flint Mayor Karen Weaver extending the state of emergency in hopes of renewing national attention on the matter (and here I am writing this — it worked) and the recent #NoDAPL struggle, which has everyone concerned about water, the people of Flint could finally receive the help they need.
And it looks like they’ll get it. In an astonishing display of bipartisan cooperation, the House is working on passing a bill that would authorize “up to $170 million in infrastructure funds for communities such as Flint whose water systems are blighted by “chemical, physical, or biological contaminants.” The Senate is on the same page, working to pass up to $270 million in aid as well, according to the Chicago Tribune.
How Flint has been thrust into such an awful situation lies entirely in neglect. As of August, “[nine] current and former state workers are charged as the criminal investigation continues. One of the employees, Liane Shekter-Smith, is the former chief of the Michigan Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance. She faces charges of misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty for allegedly misleading the public and concealing evidence of rising lead levels in water,” CNN reported.
Intentionally misrepresenting information to mislead a public that the water is not in fact contaminated is a bit of a diluted action, granted that the public will inevitably display the alarming side effects of consuming and bathing in lead-contaminated water. Maybe Shekter-Smith thought the people of Flint would remarkably adapt and evolve to thrive off of lead, as it seems they are keen to ignore the science.
Despite the fact that this crisis should have been avoided in the first place, it should not have taken this long to be properly addressed. Hopefully, the coming federal aid will be a breath of fresh air (or perhaps a sip of clean water) for Flint residents.