Flint is an example of Corporate America leaving a city to fend for itself in the worst way possible. In the 80s, Flint was a bustling community, home of the largest GM plant in the country but when the plant shut down, the city was in a financial hole and in 2011, the state took over the city’s finances. 3 years later, those in charge built a new pipeline to move the water from Lake Huron to Flint. Soon after the pipeline was finished and working, there seemed to be something wrong about the water quality.
Tests completed by the EPA and Virginia Tech in 2015 revealed that the water contained dangerous levels of lead. As we all know, drinking lead is not safe at all. Lead consumption can lead to heart and kidney defects and affect cognition, behavior and hearing problems in children.
Flint, Michigan is 39.7% White and 53.7% Black or African American. The previous blog intern here at Climate Justice Now has already described environmental racism in her comparison between those impacted most by COVID-19 and environmental degradation (you can access Tatum Eames’s wonderful blog here). Therefore, I am not going to go into the details of how BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Color) are more likely to be impacted by pollution. Flint, Michigan is a prime and extremely unfortunate example of the system letting down people of color. It would be one thing if the government did everything and were completely ignorant of the contaminated water supply. But some sources state that the Governor was actually aware of the lead-filled water a year prior to the pipeline through prior emails and telephone calls.
Some Flint residents had to drink out of water bottles for 4 years. Thousands of people were poisoned and many are still scared to drink the water and are distrustful of the government. This is not the first time that the system has let down Flint. In 1980, GM hired 90,000 Flint residents and by 2006, the number went all the way down to 8,000. While trying to combat unemployment, Flint was also an area of increased racist housing practices while financially supporting the white suburban areas and decreasing the metro revenue by $55,000.
In 2014, I remember when Instagram and Facebook were filled with posts about donating to Flint and calling Governor Snyder. Many wouldn’t have known that the problem was not fixed for some until 2 years ago. This is not only a social issue but an environmental issue. A city did not have access to clean water and instead were either forced to drink their dangerously contaminated water or buy non-reusable water bottles. Thankfully, Flint has access to clean water but we owe it to them and the cities across the nation and the world to hear them and fight for them. Clean water should be a given right not a privilege.
Written by Dominique Agnew, Senior at Cornell University and Intern at Climate Justice Now
Sources:
https://www.michiganradio.org/post/does-flint-have-clean-water-yes-it-s-complicated
https://www.usnews.com/news/cities/articles/2019-02-12/what-will-it-take-to-save-flint-michigan
https://spoonuniversity.com/news/why-you-should-care-about-the-flint-water-crisis
https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/04/us/flint-water-crisis-fast-facts/index.html