In October, CNN reported on an outbreak of shigellosis in Michigan’s Genesse County, which is home to the city of Flint. Shigellosis is an infectious bacterial disease that spreads when people fail to properly wash their hands and can cause diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps.
Many residents of Flint, still using filters and bottled water due to the high lead levels in their tap water, have simply stopped washing their hands, using the baby wipes that are provided at the water distribution points instead.
The problem is that the baby wipes are not disinfectants and do not kill the bacteria that causes shigellosis. Hot water and soap would. But people in Flint are still afraid to use the water that flows from their taps and that caused widespread cases of skin rash and hair loss.
The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, has not gone away—it has just been buried under other news. In addition to the reports of shigellosis, two recent court rulings, one state and one federal, should remind us all of the high price of Republican rule.
The Detroit Free Press reported on the recent ruling by Michigan Court of Claims Judge Mark Boonstra, which allows the lawsuit brought by some Flint residents against the state of Michigan to proceed.
...if proven, that the actions taken by the state actors were so arbitrary, in a constitutional sense, as to shock the conscience," Boonstra wrote.
"Plaintiffs allege that it was state actors who made the decisions to switch to the Flint River as the source of drinking water, after a period of deliberation, despite knowledge of the danger posed by the water, without a state-conducted scientific assessment of the suitability of using water from the Flint River ... and with knowledge of the inadequacies of Flint's water treatment plant," the judge wrote.
"They also allege that various state actors intentionally concealed data and made false statements in an attempt to downplay the health dangers posed by using Flint's tap water, despite possessing scientific data and actual knowledge that the water supply reaching the taps of Flint water users was contaminated with Legionella bacteria and dangerously high levels of toxic lead..."
The state of Michigan blocked the attempts of the Genesee County Health Department to work with the CDC when it was faced with one of the nation’s largest outbreaks of Legionnaire’s Disease in 2014. There were 87 cases and nine deaths. Jim Henry, the county health director, told CNN that the state would not let the county contact the CDC for help in determining the source of the infection, which was suspected to be the city’s water supply.
"The state stopped our investigation by prohibiting us to communicate," Henry alleges. "They prohibited communication between the Centers for Disease Control and Genesee County Health Department. They prevented that team to come here and help us find the source."
Another court, this time federal, has also weighed in on the ongoing crisis. In a November 10, 2016 ruling, United States District Judge David M. Lawson found that:
A safe water supply has always been critical to civilization. Early villages were purposely located near good water supplies, and ancient trails were often routed past natural springs.
…
In modern society, when we turn on a faucet, we expect safe drinking water to flow out. As the evidence shows, that is no longer the case in Flint. The Flint water crisis has in effect turned back the clock to a time when people traveled to central water sources to fill their buckets and carry the water home.
Judge Lawson ordered the state and the city to deliver four cases of bottled water per resident per week to qualified Flint households. Although a program exists that provides water filters to households in Flint, there is no follow-up to ensure that the filters are correctly installed and functioning, and that the cartridges are being replaced as needed. The judge’s order corrects that, requiring regular monitoring of water filters or the delivery of bottled water.
None of this would have been necessary—not the lead poisoning, the illnesses, or the deaths, had it not been for the Republican administration of Gov. Rick Snyder. As Marcy Wheeler wrote for Salon:
One of the first things Snyder did when he took office was give business a big tax cut while raising taxes on the seniors and shifting revenue sharing away from cities. He basically gave the rich tax breaks while making the less fortunate pick up the slack. That big tax shift accompanied Snyder’s efforts to make “fiscally responsible” cuts in cities like Flint and Detroit.
In her August story, peregrine kate quoted the Detroit Free Press’ report on a research paper about the crisis by Peter J. Hammer, director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University Law School:
- Flint was so broke at the time of the crisis it didn't have the money to pay for needed improvements to the Flint Water Treatment Plant in order to safely put the plant into operation to start treating water from the Flint River. Though estimates of the amount of investment needed in the plant were pegged at $69 million in 2011 and at $25 million in 2013, it appears only about $8 million was spent on the plant before it started treating Flint River water in April 2014.
- Flint's financial crisis was largely state-made: From 2006 — the last year Flint ran a budget surplus — to the 2012 fiscal year, when it was placed under state receivership, state revenue sharing to Flint fell 61%, from $20 million to $7.9 million. [emphasis added]
Republicans in states across the country are making progress toward their ultimate goal of making government small enough to drown in a bathtub. They have been restricted to state governments by the power of a presidential veto which has, thus far, protected the federal government.
On January 20, 2017 a president who cared about governance will leave the Oval Office. And that protection will leave with hiim.