Years after the emergency, the Michigan city is yet to replace all lead pipes and affected families are still awaiting justice

Years after the emergency, the Michigan city is yet to replace all lead pipes and affected families are still awaiting justice

Earlier this month, Brittany Thomas received a call that her 11-year-old daughter Janiyah had experienced a seizure at school.

“She’d been seizure-free for about two years now,” said Thomas, a resident of Flint, Michigan. “And they just came back.”

The call took Thomas back to April 2014, when, to save money, the City of Flint switched to a water source that exposed more than 100,000 residents – including up to 12,000 children – to elevated levels of lead and bacteria. Thomas’s family drank bottled water at the time, but they cooked with and bathed in the tap water.

Soon after the switch, Thomas and her two children developed rashes on their skin. Then the children began experiencing frequent seizures that sent them in and out of the hospital. Blood tests revealed they had lead poisoning.

“I didn’t know how to feel,” she said. “I’ve been depressed, I’ve been frustrated, stressed out – can’t catch a break.”

Studies later showed that after officials changed Flint’s water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River, the percentage of children with elevated levels of lead levels in their blood doubled – and in some parts of the city, tripled. The switch also exposed residents to the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease, leading to as many as 115 deaths.

  • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
    11·
    6 months ago

    It’s largely been resolved. The article is an exaggeration. There’s 1,900 lines that property owners haven’t consented to updates. 31,000 have been replaced. Flint has been replacing the mains and the supply lines which are typically homeowner’s responsibility. The supply line requires workers to go on private property, so there’s the permission issue.