Flint Free Water Ends, But Lead Pipes — And Worry — Remain

FLINT, MI — Free water distributions are ending in Flint, where the city’s 100,000 residents were exposed to dangerously high levels of lead after the city switched to an improperly treated water supply four years ago. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has declared the water safe to drink, a decision many are calling premature as 12,000 homes still have lead or galvanized pipes.

The city’s water issues go beyond lead. A deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that killed a dozen people in the Flint area has been linked to the tainted water supply.

Flint’s water has tested as well as or better than similar cities across the state for two years, Snyder said Friday in his announcement that the remaining four water distribution centers would close and deliveries would end once the state-funded bottled water supply was exhausted.

The state settled a lawsuit last year and agreed to spend $87 million to tear out and replace miles of lead or galvanized water lines to at least 18,000 Flint homes by Jan. 1, 2020. The work is complete on about one-third of them, Snyder said Friday.

The state will continue providing water filters and replacement cartridges for Flint residents who have service line replacements underway or lack confidence in the water supply, he said. In all, the state has spent about $350 million and the federal government has spent an additional $100 million to help replace the lead pipes and pay for other services related to the Flint water crisis, which has been called one of the worst man-made disasters in modern history.

It began when the city started getting its water from the Flint River in 2014. The switch was intended to save money, but the water's corrosive properties caused lead in the city's aging pipes to leach and expose thousands to dangerously high levels of lead, which can cause irreversible brain damage in children, lower IQs, anti-social behavior and a host of other problems.

In a lawsuit settlement deal reached Monday between the Michigan Department of Education and school groups, more than $4.1 million in funding will be used to create a registry of Flint children affected by the lead crisis. It’s expected to be finalized in a federal court hearing later this week.

Fifteen people have been criminally charged in the Flint disaster and cover-up, including five state and local officials charged with involuntary manslaughter.

The criminal investigation and resulting allegations that many people knew the water was tainted left many residents of the city distrustful and skeptical, said Flint Mayor Karen Weaver. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Flint Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, follow us on Facebook, and download the free Patch iPhone app or free Patch Android app.)

“Over the past few weeks, residents of Flint have been expressing their great anxiety over the potential end to the supply of bottled water,” Weaver wrote in a letter to state officials a day before Snyder announced his decision. “Free bottled water should be provided to the people of Flint until the last known lead-tainted pipe has been replaced.”

Snyder’s decision resulted in long lines at water distribution sites Friday.

“I think it’s really cruel what they’re doing to us as a city as a whole,” Mary Corbin, who still uses bottled water for drinking, cooking and hygiene, told MLive.com. “We’ve been struggling over four years almost. It’s just cold-hearted — now they’re taking our drinking water away from us.”

Keisha Kanaday said Flint residents have lost faith in government officials, who for more than a year insisted the water was safe to drink before finally acknowledging in late 2015 that the water had been tainted.

“I think it’s horrible that they're going to stop providing free bottled water to the residents, I live inside the city of Flint, the water is still making people sick, we have babies, this water is really needed,” Kanady told MLive. “It’s just so sad. We just don't trust that the water running out of faucet just isn’t safe enough for us to use.”

Melissa Mays, whose lawsuit led to the court-ordered agreement requiring the state and federal governments to replace pipes made of lead or galvanized steel, is still cooking with bottled water.

“My water stinks. It still burns to take a shower,” she told The Associated Press. “There’s no way they can say it’s safe.”

Erik Olson, director of health for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement that the governor’s decision is “disappointing” in view of a state decision last week that greenlighted Nestle’s permit to pump 500,000 gallons of Michigan groundwater a day at virtually no cost for its bottled water business.

“The people of Flint deserve better,” Olson said. “It’s deeply troubling that the state is willing to give free water to Nestle and other corporations but not its own people, who they poisoned.”

Bill Quarles, a deacon at the First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in Flint, told NBC News the run on state-provided bottled water could drain its and other charities’ pantries. Between 100 and 200 cars have shown up a week for bottled water since the church began handing out bottled water three years ago.

“Normally, we give out whatever a family wants,” Quarles told the network. “But now we may have to limit that until more supplies come in.”

Bottled water donations have been pledged from Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Baltimore, Maryland, but they’re not expected in Flint until the end of the week. Quarles said contributions have slowed now that the water crisis no longer makes headlines.

“The country thinks that the water is fine,” he told NBC, “but the residents and the city of Flint do not trust what’s being said.”

Lead image: Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images