This post was written and reported by freelance contributor Dawn R. Wolfe through our new Daily Kos freelance program.
With all of the chaos happening on our national stage, the ongoing situation in Flint, Michigan, has receded in mainstream news coverage like an outgoing wave on the beach. But while it is actually “safe” to drink filtered water from Flint's taps these days, an epidemic of water shut-offs, a traumatized citizenry, and several court cases have combined to make the situation in Flint today about as murky as the water coming from its taps in 2014.
When asked recently whether Flint's tap water is currently safe to drink, Dr. Marc Edwards—the lead Virginia Tech researcher who started volunteering his time, expertise, and almost $150,000 of his own funds to expose the Flint water crisis starting in 2015—answered with a very conditional, extremely qualified, “yes.”
“No water in America is safe to drink, period, [but] for more than two years, on every parameter that we measure, Flint's water has been as safe as other cities,” Edwards said. “That's nothing to brag about. We've been trying to revise the Lead and Copper Rule in this country for 10 years. The revision is seven years overdue.”
Despite reassurances from the results of hundreds of tests—including testing done by the EPA, Edwards' team, and the nonprofit National Resources Defense Counsel—some Flint citizen activists remain unconvinced. After all, they've been burned before. In reaction, activists have started doing their own (frequently inaccurate) testing, attacking Edwards's integrity, and showing up en masse at public meetings and on social media to vent their frustrations.
For his part, Edwards says he empathizes with the activists. “Once the cameras go away, Flint is right back where they started from,” he says. “We haven't fixed the infrastructure crisis in Flint,” which is still working to replace thousands of lead-lined pipes. The pipes were damaged, and thousands of Flint residents were poisoned, when Republican-appointed city managers switched the city's water supply from the Detroit Water Department (now the Great Lakes Water Authority) to the highly toxic Flint River in 2014.
Drinking the water is one thing. Affording it is another.
While the immediate crisis of potability is handled, an increasing number of Flint residents are faced with a new crisis: taps that have been shut off for nonpayment. Flint, according to a 2017 survey by the national nonprofit Food & Water Watch, has the 10th highest water rates in the country.
In March, Michigan Radio reported that 1,100 Flint residents had had their water service cut off since January 2017. On May 17, MLive reported that the city has ramped up its shut-off program, cutting off 300 water service lines a week.
The city has instituted a trial reduced payment plan, mandating as of March 13 that residents pay 10 percent of their outstanding balance in addition to a $75 fee for turning the water off in the first place—and another $75 fee for turning it back on. They also have to stay current with their bills and continue paying on the past due amounts. Flint Mayor Dr. Karen Weaver's aide, Candice Mushatt, said the city is looking into strategies to help offset the costs of water bills and is also referring residents to local charities.
The trial payment period may be a carrot, but Flint Chief Financial Officer Hughey Newsome is also trying a stick: tax liens on homes with outstanding water balances. In other words, Newsome is willing to threaten people with being kicked out of their homes for nonpayment of water bills, regardless of inability to pay or the fact that Flint residents with lead service pipes still can't drink unfiltered tap water. Newsome was not available to comment in time for this article.
Fortunately for Flint homeowners, Genesee County Treasurer Deb Cherry won't be collecting on those liens. During a recent interview, Cherry said she won't enforce liens for water bills that weren't paid from 2014 to 2016 (when Flint's water was literally poisonous), and her office will also not enforce any water bill-based tax liens at all until the mayor's office declares the water emergency over.
According to the MLive report, Flint's water fund will have a $4 million surplus at the end of 2018. However, the report also says that Newsome stated the fund will be in the red in the next five years unless collection efforts are ramped up.
Residents, prisoners try for their day in court
Flint’s water crisis has also started making its way to the court system. In addition to the upcoming criminal trials of state officials, 13 federal lawsuits have been filed to date. Twelve closely related class-action suits have been consolidated into one class case, which is now before U.S. District Judge Judith Levy in Ann Arbor. According to co-lead interim class counsel Michael Pitt, the class actions run the gamut from claims arising from health issues caused by drinking lead-poisoned water—including more than 1,000 children who were exposed to dangerous levels of lead—to property losses possibly exceeding $1 billion. Defendants in the case, which include several city, state, and federal officials, filed motions to dismiss the suits earlier this month.
While the related class actions have started making their way through the system, one stand-alone suit filed in June aims to get justice for former inmates of the Genesee County Jail. They have accused administrators of denying inmates access to clean water during the crisis, and charging exorbitant prices for bottled water in the jail's commissary.
Conrad J. Benedetto, one of the lead attorneys in that case, said, “We filed this lawsuit to send a message to Genesee County officials and to other government officials across this country that the United States Constitution gives all citizens—even prisoners—certain fundamental rights that cannot be disregarded on a whim.”
Dawn Wolfe is a freelance writer and journalist based in Ann Arbor, Mich. If you ‘d like to help support more stories like this through our freelance program, contribute here.