PHOTO/NAYYIRAH SHARIFF
[water wars]
Flint, —The water crisis here has reached a tipping point. The Department of Environmental Quality has ordered the city’s Emergency Manager to issue notices to water customers that Flint’s water violates the Clean Water Act Standards. The water drawn from the Flint River (temporarily while a new pipeline to Lake Huron is built) contains excessive levels of cancer causing trihalomethanes (TTHMs).
The notice urges citizens not to panic. It says that the water is safe, yet cautioned “elderly and households with infants” or others with “compromised immune systems” to “consult their physicians”! Local hospitals and colleges are scrambling to upgrade their filtering systems and monitor water quality in response to the alarming reports. In the meantime, town hall meetings and demonstrations all over town are being held to confront the crisis. A lawsuit is in the making.
Residents have known that something was wrong with this water since spring of last year, when the Flint River was used. Aside from a series of water boil advisories, countless complaints of skin rashes and physical illness have fallen on deaf ears of the Emergency Manager regime.
This past October, the General Motors Engine plant asked for and received permission to discontinue Flint water usage since high levels of chloride were rusting axle parts—the same chloride levels that have exposed us to the unacceptable TTHM levels. Under corporate dictatorship, an engine part has more value than the health and well being of human beings.
Water Rate Scandal
Even before the Department of Environmental Quality issued it’s finding on the life threatening contaminants in Flint’s water, the cost of water here became mind-boggling. Like Detroit, excessive water rates have resulted in numerous water shutoffs. In one year’s time, over 10,000 property liens have been issued due to water debts. Flint water rates are the highest in the state. Homeowners as well as renters are leaving the city in droves to deal with the crisis. Others have their water on “illegally”, hoping they won’t be discovered and face prosecution. Yet, bondholders and banks have not missed one payment while the citizens living under Emergency Manager rule, are gauged to pay for water that we own but do not control.
In their quest for quality and affordable water, the citizens of Flint are writing a new chapter in the struggle. Who would have imagined that the home of the great Sit Down strike would be called on to fight under the banner: WATER IS LIFE!
Claire McClinton is a Flint resident and UAW retiree.
