How government poisoned the people of Flint

By John Counts | Jan. 21, 2016

Flint water has poisoned more than just its children.

It's poisoned the citizenry's faith in government, which is supposed to provide safe drinking water, one of life's most basic essentials.

Just ask Pete Nichols who was picking up bottles of water from a downtown fire station on a recent weekday.

HOW WE GOT HERE

From the beginning to now, here's a brief video wrap-up of how the Flint water crisis came to be.

* Timeline: Step-by-step guide

* Key Figures:What they knew

* Graphic: How lead got into the water

* Ongoing Flint Water Coverage

"Somebody needs to go to jail for this, man," said Nichols. "They're poisoning an entire community. A generation of kids will never recover from this. And it's all just to save a few dollars. They played a game of chess with our lives and we lost."

It's poisoned people's trust in the folks elected to protect the public from such calamities.

Just ask Willester Dunn, a resident of West Stewart Avenue who was also picking up water from a fire station.

"Politicians get paid to take care of the people," he said. "They let us down in Michigan. They lock us up for our crimes, what are they going to do about theirs?"

It's poisoned the spirit of a hard-knock town already accustomed to living with poverty, high-crime and unemployment.

Just ask Coco Childress, a mother of two who lives on Hamilton Street in Flint. She was picking up water and filters at a nearby fire station Friday, the same day Gov. Rick Snyder asked for federal help to address the water crisis.

"I hate his guts," Childress said about Snyder. "I'm not happy at all. I'm ready to move."

Dan Reyes, president of the UAW Local 599 in Flint, hands out bottles of Flint water to protestors during a rally outside of the Michigan State Capitol Building during Gov. Rick Snyder's State of the State address on Tuesday, Jan. 19 2016 in Lansing. Sean Proctor | MLive.com

A long, complicated tale

The story that's unraveled ever since the city switched its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River in April 2014 initially drew little interest from folks outside of Flint. Despite complaints about the water's quality and smell, residents were told they could keep drinking.

"I'm sorry most of all that I let you down. You deserve better. You deserve accountability."

While MLive/The Flint Journal covered the complaints, many public officials, it seems, turned a blind eye to the problem, whether knowingly or not remains to be seen.

The issue blew open in the fall of 2015 when a university researcher and a local doctor issued separate reports warning about lead in the Flint water system. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha's study showed lead levels spiked in Flint children after the source of drinking water was switched to the Flint River.

Snyder has been pressured in recent weeks to release emails pertaining to the crisis to see just what was known and when. Snyder's office, as the Legislature, is shielded from the Freedom of Information Act. Snyder agreed to release emails at the State of the State address Tuesday.

"I'm sorry most of all that I let you down," Snyder said in the speech. "You deserve better. You deserve accountability. You deserve to know the buck stops here with me."

It's taken almost two years for the public to learn the true fallout from the water switch. Flint residents live in a state of fear and uncertainty about the health of their children, who are most vulnerable to the high levels of lead.

Even more startling is the possibility that the water led to the deaths of 10 people from Legionnaires' disease, a severe, often lethal, form of pneumonia caused by water-borne bacteria. A conclusive link between the water and the deaths has yet to be determined, though health officials were aware of a potential problem for more than a year before the public was told.

A game of finger pointing has now commenced as a national audience looks on.

The situation in Flint reached a crescendo last week when President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration to provide federal assistance.

Although the water-source switch occurred in spring 2014, it wasn't until the fall of 2015 that the residents of Flint were finally told to stop drinking the water straight from the tap unfiltered. The authorities had concluded what some in the public had long suspected: the water is poisonous.

Disaster area

The scene at Flint's fire stations recently was like something out of a disaster movie. The bomb had dropped. The tornado had torn through town. The zombies had arrived. But Flint's crisis is no random act of God. In fact, experts have been predicting it for months.

At neighborhood stations, like Station Three located at 1525 Martin Luther King Ave., there were parking barricades set up so residents could leave their vehicles at the curb, run into the station and grab cases of bottled water, testing kits and filters.

Young, sturdy National Guardsmen in crew cuts and camouflage uniforms piled cases of bottled water on dollies and carted them to cars for people of all ages. The vast majority of the folks were black, which isn't much of a surprise in a city that is 53 percent African American.

The racial quotient of the crisis has also been controversial, with critics of the government's response saying that something like this would never happen in a predominantly white, affluent area.

Residents at the water pickup stations interviewed by MLive.com echoed this sentiment. They were also concerned about their health and upset they've been paying for water they can't use, with bills reaching around $150 per month.

Carolyn Simons, who lives by Northwestern High School, fears her 16-year-old daughter is sick from the tap water, which they didn't stop using until December.

"My daughter's having headaches," she said. "I had to take her to urgent care yesterday. They told me to go get her blood tested. We were drinking the water before we heard about the lead."

"A generation of kids will never recover from this. They played a game of chess with our lives and we lost."

- Pete Nichols

Johnny Billings, who was getting bottled water at the Hasselbring Park Senior Community Center on the city's north side, said he stopped using tap water after touring the city's treatment facility following the switch.

"The only thing this water is good for is flushing your toilet and washing your dishes," he said. "I think we ain't got no business paying for service for this water. They got us paying for water we can't even use."

Just when residents like Simons and Billings stopped drinking the water varies widely, seemingly the result of what was presented to the public.

Nichols, who was picking up water at Fire Station 1 downtown, said he stopped drinking the water shortly after it was announced that it was too corrosive for General Motors to build cars with. That was in October 2014.

Others residents like Taffiney Howell, a mother of four children ranging in ages from 7-16, didn't know to stop drinking and using the water until mid-January, when the Legionnaire deaths were announced and long after the high lead levels were revealed.

Howell, who was grabbing water from Fire Station 6, located 716 West Pierson Road, is very concerned about her health and the health of her children.

"I'm sick. My kids are sick. I don't know if it's a regular cold, don't know if it's this," she said.

Pulling the switch

January's state of emergency was called nearly two years after the water switch was made amid high hopes that the city would save money and end its reliance on Detroit, which had been Flint's source of water for nearly five decades.

In March 2013, Flint's city council voted to stop buying Detroit water, a mostly empty gesture considering the city was under a state-appointed emergency manager. Controversial emergency managers are expected to use bold maneuvers and lead financially floundering municipalities to long-term solvency. Flint, the once-proud birthplace of General Motors, has struggled since the 1980s when GM pulled out much of its manufacturing from the city.

Emergency managers, who are appointed by the governor, have been lauded for successes - in Detroit, for example - and criticized for being fundamentally undemocratic, allowing unelected officials to make big decisions - like changing a city's water supply.

The emergency manager at the time, Ed Kurtz, officially signed off on the agreement the next month.

A short time after Flint announced plans to go forward with the Karengnondi Water Authority, which is building a pipeline to Lake Huron, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department said it would be shutting off water in Flint and the rest of Genesee County in one year, even though the KWA pipeline was going to take three years to build.

The county brokered a deal with the DWSD to continue getting water until the pipeline was finished. The city of Flint decided to forge ahead on its own, however. The switch to Flint River water in April 2014 was supposed to be a temporary fix while the pipeline was completed.

Officials touted the switch as a bold, cost-saving step forward. The Detroit water Flint had used for almost 50 years was already treated by the DWSD by the time it reached Flint faucets. The city would have to treat the river water itself, however.

The city's emergency manager during the switch, Darnell Earley, said Flint taking control of its own water needs was a "monumental change."

"This is indeed the best choice for the city of Flint going forward," Earley said, according to a Flint Journal report on April 25, 2014.

The city was expected to save $19 million over eight years. The temporary switch was expected to save $5 million just in the first year.

Initially, city documents show Flint officials planned to use that $5 million short-term savings to make upgrades at the Flint Water Treatment Plant and to start replacing some aging water transmission pipes and valves before connecting to the new pipeline sometime in 2016.

On April 25, 2014, city employees and elected officials raise glasses of treated water from the Flint River during a toast in a ceremony stopping the intake of water from Detroit at the Flint Water Treatment Plant. Samuel Wilson | The Flint Journal, MLive.com

The water switch was a celebratory event, with officials toasting glasses of treated river water at the city's treatment plant.

In hindsight, the water in those cups may have tainted a generation of Flint children and resulted in the deaths of several people from Legionnaire's disease.

Testing the water

The new water was immediately met with skepticism.

It was harder than the old stuff. Dish soap didn't foam up as much. It smelled different. But five days after the switch, the state's Department of Environmental Quality tested the water and found that it met standards.

By June 2014, however, complaints were pouring in.

Rev. Barbara Bettis, who lives in the Flint's 7th Ward, told the city council that residents shouldn't have to be paying for such inferior water.

"It stinks. It's nasty, and we shouldn't even be drinking it," Bettis said at the time, prophetically.

The city's response was to dump more lime in the water, which can cut down on its hardness.

Then-Mayor Dayne Walling made a comment in the press that was still resonating with residents interviewed recently while picking up free bottled water from a disaster zone.

"It's a quality, safe product," Walling said in a June 12, 2014 story in The Flint Journal. "I think people are wasting their precious money buying bottled water."

Ahmirah Porter, 9, of Flint stands silently behind a sign that reads "I've been poisoned by policy," as she joins more than 150 activists protest outside of City Hall to protest Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's handling of the water crisis on Friday, Jan. 8, 2016 in downtown Flint. Jake May | Flint Journal, MLive.com

Health hazards

It was soon revealed that the water wasn't just smelly and too hard.

By September - five months after the switch - there'd been three boil water advisories within a 22-day span after the water tested positive for total coliform bacteria.

In October 2014, General Motors announced that it would no longer use treated river water at its engine plant because of fears high chloride levels would cause corrosion.

But a bigger revelation came in January 2015, when high levels of trihalomethanes, also known as TTHM, were detected in the water. Caused by chlorinating the water during treatment, TTHM levels can cause liver, kidney or central nervous problems and an increased risk of cancer.

The levels violated the Safe Drinking Water Act. Still, officials said the water was safe for the majority of the residents and that only infants, the elderly and anyone else with "a compromised immune system" were at risk.

In the wake of the revelation, some action was taken by various agencies. Earley, who would soon be supplanted as emergency manager by Jerry Ambrose, announced a water consultant would be hired to study the water problems. Local hospitals and schools didn't wait for an official proclamation, choosing to make changes in the water offered to patients and students on their own.

The DWSD offered to reconnect Flint to its previous, clean water source for $4 million, a deal not immediately pursued. Walling, who at the time still wasn't convinced that the city needed to be reconnected to Detroit water, asked the state for help.

Snyder's spokesman told Flint the state was working on the issue.

Meanwhile, Howard Croft, then the director of Flint's Department of Public Works, said that the city's aging water distribution system was the biggest obstacle to meeting Safe Drinking Water standards.

The city's water distribution system includes hundreds of miles of water mains, many of which are more than 70 years old; nearly 4,000 fire hydrants, many of which are more than 50 years old; and more than 7,200 valves, which haven't been replaced until they have failed, according to city documents.

The combination of the corrosive water from the Flint River and the old lead pipes would soon result in even more worrisome results.

But Flint would still be told the water was safe for eight more months until elevated lead levels were revealed.

Reconnection?

The state's response to what would turn out to be a massive public health issue began in trickles. A month after high TTHM levels were discovered, Snyder awarded the city a $2 million "distressed city" grant to find leaks in the system.

The amount was a pittance compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly more than $1 billion, that officials say are now needed to replace lead pipes in the aging infrastructure.

Meanwhile Flint preschoolers were being given bottled water and the Flint Children's Museum went off city water despite a report from the outside consulting firm, Veolia North America, which said the water was still safe to drink.

In February 2015, Mayor Walling continued his crusade, bypassing the governor and appealing straight to the White House for help.

The state tested the water that same month and said it was within EPA guidelines, but it was later revealed the DEQ was basing the tests on erroneous information.

Still, Flint residents were told to keep drinking the water.

A political battled ensued over reconnection to Detroit water. Neither Walling or new emergency manager Jerry Ambrose supported the idea. The Flint City Council in March 2015 voted 7-1 to go back onto Lake Huron water delivered by the DWSD, but since the city was still under an emergency manager, the vote didn't have any authority.

Still, Ambrose called the vote "incomprehensible," saying that the water was safe by state and federal standards.

By April, Ambrose was gone. Walling regained control of his elected office after the city's financial emergency was declared to be over, though Flint's finances still remain under state oversight.

Walling made a point to tell the public that he and his family drank Flint water everyday.

The water issue also hit the courts when lawsuits were filed in both a state and federal courts requesting an injunction to switch back the city's water source as soon as possible.

In June, U.S. District Judge Stephen H. Murphy III denied the motion, saying that the legal theories were undeveloped and that it didn't spell out how the court had that authority. In September, Genesee Circuit Judge Archie Hayman dismissed the lawsuit filed in his court.

Even if they weren't publicly saying it, officials seemed to understand there was a problem. That summer, even as state officials said the tap water was safe and meeting all standards, Snyder quietly helped 1,500 water filters get delivered to Flint.

Then it got worse.

Lead in water

In September, a professor from Virginia Tech made an announcement that only heightened the public's fear and anxiety: Flint drinking water was very corrosive and causing lead contamination.

Explained in the plainest terms, the Flint River water leaches, or pulls off, lead from old plumbing, mixing it in with the water that eventually comes out a tap.

The professor, Marc Edwards, had been asked to test the water by Flint residents already worried about the TTHM levels. The professor soon became something of a hero in the saga, doing the type of testing the public felt government authorities should have been conducting and relaying the results.

Edwards and his team of researchers advised residents to not drink or cook with the water without using a filter.

In response, the city said it was in compliance with DEQ mandates (which later turned out to be incorrect) and were continuing to work with state health officials.

Edwards' report prompted a response from the EPA, however. The federal agency tested the water and said it contained allowable levels of lead, but recommended the water immediately be treated for corrosion control.

A later test showed that levels of lead in the water started to rise as soon as the switch was made in April 2014.

And still, Flint residents were told to keep drinking the water.

This newest development motivated Walling to ask the state for $30 million in aid.

In September, Snyder said the state would help, but offered no specifics.

Medical response

Another key figure outside of government emerged when local doctors and health officials stepped in and urged the city to start talking about the lead.

Hurley Medical Center Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha issued a report in September stating that the number of Flint infants and children with elevated levels of lead in their blood increased since the city switched to using the Flint River as its water source.

The data showed the percentage of Flint infants and children with above average lead levels has nearly doubled citywide, and has nearly tripled among children in "high risk" areas of lead exposure, according to the study.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services' Angela Minicuci responded by saying that blood lead levels have remained steady.

Mayor Walling now supported a reconnection with Detroit water and the city started telling residents to flush pipes and install filters. Flint Community Schools even started to ask students to avoid drinking fountains and to bring bottled water to school.

By the end of September, Snyder said, "There are probably things that weren't as fully understood" as they should have been before the city tapped into the Flint River for drinking water.

45,000 index cards

By fall, officials across city, state and federal levels knew that the problem was bigger than previously believed. Efforts were ramped up to combat the problem.

But there were a few obstacles, one of which was the archaic way Flint catalogued its information. The city had information about which Flint homes had old pipes more susceptible to leaching lead into the water, but couldn't easily access them because the information was on 45,000 index cards. Digitizing the information was slow going.

In October, a year after General Motors had announced the water was too corrosive for its uses, Snyder said the current plan was to continue to use the Flint River as a water source, though the state would provide $1 million for water testing and filters.

Tests showed schools still had contaminated water. Bottled water drives continued.

Flint resident David Peterson, 89, left, and his wife Ollie Peterson, 87, keep their eyes glued to the television as they listen to Gov. Rick Snyder deliver his State of the State address on television Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016 at their home on Flint's north side. Jake May | Flint Journal, MLive.com

Some people still continued to drink the water, however.

On Oct. 8, Snyder announced the first significant response to the crisis: a $16-million plan intended to reduce lead, part of which would be spent on reconnecting Flint to the Detroit water system.

Detroit water was flowing back in Flint city pipes eight days later, but it remains to be seen if there's been too much damage already done to those pipes.

Apologies, resignations and finger pointing

The state stepped forward shortly thereafter and admitted mistakes had been made.

DEQ officials said they were using the incorrect federal guidelines and that it should have been treating the water for corrosion for 17 months. Records acquired by The Flint Journal showed that federal officials had been telling state water officials about the lead in the water eight months before it was publically announced.

In November, Howard Croft, the head of Flint's public works department during the crisis, was the first to announce his resignation. A month later, DEQ Director Dan Wyant and DEQ spokesman Brad Wurfel also announced their resignations.

Officials were starting the blame game, too.

In late October, former emergency manager Earley said it was "local civic leaders," not the state, who made the decision to switch to the Flint River for water.

Mayor Walling said the statement was "blatantly false" and city council President Josh Freeman said it amounted to a "fairy tale."

"It was the state emergency manager who failed to reach an agreement with Detroit to deliver water on a short-term contract" after they terminated an expired contract with the city, Freeman said.

Walling would lose the mayoral election to Karen Weaver in November, in part due to the water crisis.

The EPA stepped in again and confirmed there was lead in the water and that it would review the DEQ's drinking water program.

Meanwhile, more lawsuits were filed. A group went to Washington to testify before an EPA advisory board and the city issued 1,800 water shutoff notices to people who were delinquent in their bills for water they technically couldn't drink.

Flint's new mayor issued a state of emergency on Dec. 14, the same day FEMA sent 28,000 liters of bottled water to the city.

The story started to get more national attention, with the MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, having Weaver, U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee and other local voices on her show.

On Dec. 29, 2015, a year and a half after people started complaining about the water in Flint, Snyder issued an apology, which critics said was far too late.

At the time, Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee, who represents Flint, called Snyder's apology and Wyant's resignation "appropriate," but said more needed to be done.

"Through this ongoing crisis, the people of Flint did nothing wrong - they are victims of this failure of government," he said. "The State of Michigan must not only acknowledge its role in this crisis, but also take responsibility and act right away to make it right."

Legionnaire deaths

Days later, Snyder declared the water crisis a state of emergency and called in the Michigan State Police and, later, the National Guard to help.

Meanwhile, the state announced that 43 Flint residents, 23 of whom were children younger than 6, had elevated lead levels.

Again, it didn't seem to be able to get any worse.

And again, it did.

On Jan. 13, Snyder and officials from the Health and Human Services Department announced that a spike in Legionella bacteria had been discovered in the Flint area. From June 2014 to March 2015, 45 cases were confirmed in Genesee County, seven of them fatal. From May 2015 to November 2015, 42 cases were confirmed in the county, with three fatal.

State officials have said there isn't yet any conclusive evidence linking the outbreak to the water switch.

Professor Edwards, however, said there could be a link.

"It's quite possible ... that if federal law had been followed this would not have occurred," Edwards said.

Late Thursday, Jan. 14, Snyder asked for the situation to be declared a federal emergency, something President Barack Obama signed off on Saturday.

Also Saturday, Flint native and filmmaker Michael Moore held a rally in Flint, calling for Snyder's arrest. He was followed on Sunday by a visit from civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson. Late Sunday night, Hillary Clinton used her closing statement in the Democratic debate to address the Flint water crisis and to criticize Snyder, a Republican.

As the story hit the national stage, the singer Cher announced she was donating 181,000 bottles of water to Flint. Environmental advocate Erin Brockovich pleaded for the EPA to investigate.

Out on the streets

Amid the political fury, Andrew Tower and his wife Ashley Glynn arrived at a fire station on West Pierson to pick up bottles of water.

Glynn is expecting her first child in February and is worried about the baby's health.

"I have to drink water and having to buy water bottles is kind of a pain," she said. "I wish I could just drink water out of a sink like a normal person. Everyone needs water to live."

Meanwhile, Justus Thigpen and a buddy arrived at the Hasselbring Park Senior Community Center to hang out and grab some water.

Thigpen is something of a local celebrity, having come out of Flint in the 1960s as one of the town's first professional basketball players, eventually playing for the Pistons.

"I think this is a terrible situation. I've been in Flint since 1952 and never had anything like this," he said. "For the higher ups to supposedly have known what was happening and didn't tell (anyone), that's a crock. This is a good example of our leadership not thinking things through."

Many residents said Snyder should be arrested, or, at the very least, resign from office.

"I think he should get ... outta office," said Lawrence Burns, of Grand Blanc, who was getting water for his brother, a Flint resident, at a city fire station. "People up there in Lansing just don't give a damn."

When asked Friday if Snyder had any plans to resign, spokesman Dave Murray said the governor did not.

"We understand people are frustrated," Murray said. "We are working to protect the health and safety of all Flint residents. An important part of that is to make sure they get water, filters and water tests that are available at the firehouses. We are also working through a variety of agencies at the state and federal levels of government to do what's best for residents both in the short term and long into the future."

Murray also pointed out that there are also teams of volunteers going door-to-door in Flint passing out water, filters and testing kits.

Trucks filled with supplies being escorted by Genesee County sheriff deputies and Michigan State Police made their way down Van Wagoner Avenue and nearby Philadelphia Boulevard on the city's north side Friday.

Volunteers knocked on the doors of homes, many of which are abandoned in this part of town. Windows are broken out in many of the houses. Doors lay in melting snow on front lawns. Collapsed roofs and walls leave shells of homes.

This used to be the big story in Flint, the economic collapse following the decline of the auto industry, the erstwhile driving force in town.

As a deputy knocked on the door of Derald Banks' house on Van Wagoner Avenue, a state trooper knocked on the door of the neighboring house. Banks came out in a robe and pajamas and informed the trooper no one had lived in the home next door for a while now.

Protestors march along Saginaw Street demanding clean water outside of Flint City Hall in Flint, Mich. on Wednesday Oct. 7, 2015. Christian Randolph | Flint Journal, MLive.com

When asked what he thought about the crisis after getting his bottled water and filter, Banks gave a "what-can-you" do shrug.

"It helps," he said of the efforts to get residents free water.

While some folks in town have this same defeated attitude, most are enraged.

Bernice Haynes, a Flint resident for 45 years, says she's never really trusted the town's water supply, but that since the current crisis, she has gotten spots on her legs and has been forced to see a skin specialist.

"You deserve to have water to drink and take care of your body," she said, anger and frustration easily detected in her voice. "If the water's no good, why are we paying for it? It's wrong. I'm sick of this mess. We human beings are suffering. They're acting like they're trying to kill us all."