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English Research Paper
English Research Paper
H2-NO
the Crisis in Flint
Back in 2014, government officials in Flint, Michigan decided to switch the city's water
supply from Detroits Lake Huron system to the Flint River in an attempt to save money. This
river water was so corrosive that it immediately began to damage the city's aged water system-
specifically the lead service lines and copper lines that have lead soldering. People took notice
right away to the change in quality and color of their water, but most would never have guessed
that they were being poisoned. In December 2016, after almost twenty months of slow
poisoning, the city of Flint was declared in a state of emergency by the federal government. The
ultimate reason for this delayed action to such a serious problem can be attributed to failure to
act by multiple government officials. Now, three years after the crisis became public knowledge,
the state of Michigan is defunding the relief process, citing a recent study that shows decreased
water lead levels (WLLs) to under 12 parts per billion on average. Due to the extremely harmful
nature of any lead exposure, and the fact that all known lead piping won't be replaced until 2020
at best, defunding relief now is another injustice to the people of Flint. To avoid a crisis like this
one from happening again in the future, there needs to be a push for change in the way that the
EPA and other environmental agencies collect and interpret sampling data, as well as emergency
management laws.
The health hazards associated with lead exposure are very serious and wide reaching.
According to Michael B. Rosen, who is a professor at the College of Public Health in Temple
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University, there is a strong correlation between high blood lead levels (BLLs) and water lead
levels (WLLs.) People are exposed to lead in many ways throughout their environment in their
everyday lives, this is because of the persistent nature of lead and its ability to attach to soil
particles. Lead was used in a wide variety of consumer products, including plumbing, throughout
the 1950s until about 2000. The CDC shows in their study conducted on lead exposure from
1960 to about the year 2000, that there is no safe level of lead exposure (Rosen). Because of this
correlation between high BLLs and WLLs and the fact that the Flint water crisis has exposed
people to very high WLLs and continues to- even today, there should be a change to the EPAs
threshold of 15 ppb as a safe level of lead in drinking water to more accurately affect the actual
hazard that is presented. If there is a known point-source of lead pollution in drinking water (as
such is the case in Flint,) there should be a strong effort to remove it at all costs- the law should
Lead exposure increases a persons risk for heart disease and other cardiovascular
Sanborn, a ten-fold increase in lead exposure exhibited a decrease in renal function (kidney
health) equivalent to 20 years of aging. This means that the kidney, which is one of a persons
most vital organs and is responsible for controlling and removing toxins in the body, is damaged
greatly by a long exposure to lead, even in small amounts. The people of Flint have experienced
this long exposure in various amounts over the last three years, and will continue to do so for
another three years before all the pipes have been replaced. Simply put, three years is a long time
to be expected to drink water containing around 12ppb of lead. This will undeniably show
adverse health effects. In children, lead has increased risk to damage the Central Nervous
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System. It interferes with development of neuron transmission sites as-well as myelin
development. Studies show that increases in BLL in children was associated with a decrease in
IQ by 3.9 points on average. (Rosen.) These health risks are hard to pin-point as directly related
to high BLLs if a physician is not aware of a pre-existing exposure to lead. This means that
children in Flint may have neurological damage from the lead exposure and are not being treated
for it because it has been misdiagnosed. Because of how lead can affect a childs ability to learn
and function, it is imperative that the children affected by the Flint water crisis are given aid in
the form of special schooling or care by those responsible for the exposure.
To avoid these negative health effects, there must be a change in the way environmental
agencies like the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) collect and interpret
sampling data. From February to April of 2016, the MDEQ conducted a study of WLLs
throughout the city of Flint called the Sentinel Program. This program essentially separated the
city into 9 wards and collected water samples from the homes and service lines in these areas.
The in-home samples were collected by volunteer residents that were given test kits and told to
run their water or use a filter prior to collecting the sample. Because of this uneven distribution
and inaccurate weight given to service lines in the study, the data produced by this program was
flawed.
The sentinel site program did not accurately represent the content of lead in the water in
the city of Flint because of the way in which lead is being introduced into the water. According
to Pierre Goovaerts, a statistical analyst from BioMedware inc, there was a sampling bias in the
collection of data during the sentinel program. This is because the majority of lead service lines
sampled in the program were built after 1930, and the program failed to test two areas within the
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most impoverished wards. Because lead is introduced into the water from the pipes, the older
pipes (specifically those made with lead soldering) that were put in place in the 1920s have the
greatest lead content in them. Because the sentinel program failed to test many of these older
Another issue in the sentinel program is the way in which residents were told to collect
samples of water. The MDEQ used in-home sampling data of WLLs to show a decreasing trend
of lead exposure, and that it had fallen below the federal limit of 15ppb. However, more recent
studies show that this was the result of sampling bias and that the WLLs in the homes of
residents was actually above 15ppb (Goovaerts). This can be explained by how residents
collected their water samples. The MDEQ told citizens to run tap water before collecting
samples, this would allow the built up lead from the pipes to be released prior to testing. They
were also told to run the water through filters prior to collecting the sample, this trapped lead in
the filter and thus skewed the data collected by the sample. These issues are an example of how
the MDEQ uses biased sampling methods and was able to produce flawed data that lead to the
Flawed data collection is not the only thing responsible for the delayed reaction to the
Flint crisis however. The use of emergency managers also played a big role in perpetuating the
replaced local decision-makers in Flint, thus removing the checks and balances and public
accountability that come with public decision-making. This allowed Governor Rick Snyder to
avoid the blame in decisions like changing the water source back to Detroit/Lake Huron after
residents claimed the water was tainted. Governor Snyder appointed emergency manager Darnell
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Early to move forward with the plan to switch to the Flint river, and his decision would override
other appointed government officials. For this reason, the law should be changed regarding
emergency managers to reflect the idea that they should not be used as a scapegoat for planned
negligence.
Despite the continued exposure to lead and ongoing issues with laws regarding
management of environmental hazards, one might argue that the federal government is doing all
they can to provide relief. Recent data shows that there are decreased levels of lead in drinking
water. This means that the efforts to replace pipes and filter water by the state and outside
agencies have been successful. An article from NBC news says that Flint Mayor Karen Weaver
plans to replace 6000 pipes by the end of the year with help from the state and federal
governments. She also said that around 20000 pipes have been identified as the source of the
lead and will be replaced over time. This shows that the government has identified the source of
In February 2017, Flint was given $97 million by the federal government to move
forward with replacing outdated pipes, and the state of Michigan is funding 27 mil USD on top
of the already provided 300mil for filters, bills, and bottled water. Michigan should no longer
have to bear the cost of residents water bills or the redirection of flints water source from the
flint river to the Detroit system. As of February 2017, this has become reality residents now
pay for their own water bill in full and the state is not required to provide them with water
filtration or bottled water. This shows that the state is moving in the right direction and has
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Despite the recent improvements in water lead levels and plans to replace corroded pipes,
the city of Flint still exhibits environmental injustice. According to Richard Sadler, there is a
correlation between high Blood Lead Levels (BLLs) and social structure in the city of Flint. This
means that the more impoverished areas of Flint are receiving more lead in their water because
of older homes and longer residence of water in pipes. Because of this fact, there should be a
push to prioritize pipe replacement in this area. As stated above, two of the most impoverished
areas in wards 4 and 5 of the city of Flint were not tested during the sentinel program. These
areas contain the oldest homes and water lines in the city, so therefore the risk of lead exposure is
at its greatest in these areas. Because of this, they should be given first priority in replacing the
Lead exposure, even in the smallest amounts, over time can lead to significant health
effects like cardiovascular disease and kidney failure. These effects are especially destructive to
children, who can experience decreased IQ and neurological function as a result of lead
exposure. Changes must also be made to the way in which environmental agencies collect and
interpret sampling data for environmental emergencies to avoid disasters like this in the future.
Emergency manager laws are also to blame for the failure to respond to the crisis; these laws
should also be changed to reflect fair legislation regarding environmental concerns. The state and
federal governments should provide more funding for water line replacement in the future, and
the residents should not have to pay their water bills because they are essentially paying for
poison.
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Works Cited
Campbell, Carla, Rachael Greenberg, Deepa Mankikar, and Ronald Ross. "A Case Study of
Research and Public Health 13.10 (2016): 951. Science Direct. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.
Goovaerts, Pierre . "Monitoring the Aftermath of Flint Drinking Water Contamination Crisis:
Another Case of Sampling Bias?" Science of The Total Environment 590-591 (2017):
Jester, Anna Barry. "What Went Wrong In Flint ." FiveThirtyEight. FiveThirtyEight, 08 Feb .
flint-water-crisis-michigan/> .
Low Level Lead Exposure Harms Children: A Renewed Call for Primary Prevention. Atlanta,
GA: U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and
Rosen, Michael B., Lok R. Pokhrel, and Mark H. Weir. "A Discussion about Public Health, Lead
The Total Environment 590-591 (2017): 843-52. Science Direct. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.
Sadler, Richard Casey, et al. Social and Built Environmental Correlates of Predicted Blood Lead
Levels in the Flint Water Crisis. American Journal of Public Health, vol. 107, no. 5,
Sanborn, Margaret D., et al. "Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects: 3.
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"Water Lead-Level Falls Below Federal Limit in Flint ." NBCNews.com. NBCUniversal News
water-crisis/water-lead-level-falls-below-federal-limit-flint-n711716> .