Editor’s note: As we go to press, the Flint City Council passed a “bandaid” ordinance which enacts a one-year Moratorium on Water Liens. Meanwhile, the struggle continues for Suspension of Water Shutoffs and paying for poison.
Despite millions of dollars promised to replace lead service lines, the three-year nightmare of the Flint water crisis continues. The water crisis includes the dismantling of democracy through the draconian Emergency Manager system, continued toxic water flowing through the faucets, the highest water rates in the country, and health challenges as far as the eye can see. Meanwhile, just days after protest and rallies commemorating three years of the nightmare, over 8,000 residents received notices threatening water liens on their homes (which means eventually losing their homes) if they don’t pay past-due water bills.
Bondholders Walk on Water
Recently, the city of Flint (ordered by the EPA), was given the option to essentially stay on Detroit water (now Great Lakes Water Authority) or keep it’s contract with the Karagondi Water Authority (KWA), where the disaster began. (In 2014, the switch from Detroit to Flint River water by Dictate of Emergency Manager Darnell Earley created the water crisis until KWA was built.) “Stakeholders,” such as the State, Detroit, Flint, paid consultants and others, met for weeks to cobble together the “plan.”
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Recently, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver announced Flint would stay with Detroit as Flint’s primary source. Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright, who helped lead the charge in 2014 for the new pipeline, recently declared that despite Flint opting to now use Detroit as a water source, “the KWA will be made whole!” That means to date, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo Securities, and Stifel, all who underwrote KWA bond deals, remain unscathed. In other words, the bondholders will be paid no matter what. And what about Flint residents?? In response to the lien threat resident Timothy Abdul-Matin told the Flint Journal: “I’m really flabbergasted. We have people who have made a conscious decision to switch over to this water source (Flint River) without proper treatment and now they’re threatening to kick us to the streets if we don’t pay for it.”
The wholesale transfer of water and water rights from public assets to private hands is well underway in Flint, Michigan. Even the poisoning of 100,000 people did not stop this process. This is the untold story of what experts call one of the worst drinking water disasters ever. Lack of trust in the water is being matched by a lack of trust in government at all levels. (The current Mayor is facing a recall.) Water warriors and water protectors are scrambling to figure out who are their friends and who are their enemies. As the poster child of environmental disasters, Flint must forge a new unity based on meeting the water, health and democratic needs of its people.
