Case Study: Flint, Michigan, Water Crisis

Background

Contaminated water, lead poisoning and Legionaries’ disease sounds like a crisis from another era, but it occurred in Flint, Michigan, starting in April 2014. Flint was started by a fur trader, but its modern heritage largely comes from its role as a leading manufacturer of cars.

General Motors (GM) was founded there in 1908. Economic depression hit the city in the 1980s in part due to GM closing several plants in the area. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, currently it has around 100,000 residents, and 41.6% of those residents live below the poverty line.

The city’s finances also suffered. In 2011, Flint’s finances were taken over by the state due to a $25 million deficit. In that same year, the Flint water service had a $9 million deficit. The water in the Flint River, which would now flow to the city of Flint had been known to be of poor quality since the 1970s.

Despite this information, in an effort to reduce costs, Flint government officials switched the city to using water from the Flint River instead of from nearby Detroit in 2014. Originally, the plan was to only use this setup temporarily until a new water system was built. Soon after the switch, residents starting complaining about the “color, taste and odor,” of the water and to also report rashes and concerns about bacteria. GM even stopped using the Flint municipal water due to it corroding car parts. In August and September 2014, city officials issued boil water advisories due to high levels of coliform bacteria that could be signs E. coli and other organisms were in the water supply. A class-action lawsuit stated the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) was not treating the water of the Flint River with an anti-corrosive agent, violating federal law.

Course of Action

In October 2014, Susan Bohm, a disease specialist in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MHHS) wrote colleagues in her agency to document a conversation with Liane Shekter Smith (fired in February 2016), the state’s top drinking water official, about problems with the water supply.

“What she did share with me was interesting – that there have been numerous complaints about the Flint water, that the governor’s office had been involved and that any announcement by public health about the quality of the water would certainly inflame the situation.”

Although Gov. Snyder’s staffers say they didn’t learn about lead exposure and Legionnaires’ diseases outbreaks from the Flint water system until March 2015, this email suggests they did in October 2014, which was before the governor’s re-election. However, MHHS spokeswoman, Jennifer Eisner states Bohm’s email was only speaking to issues such as odd color, strange taste, and disinfection issues not knowledge of Legionnaires’ disease and lead contamination in the water supply.

In a January 22, 2015 email, Mike Prysby, a district engineer with MDEQ’s drinking water division wrote to Stephen Bush, the district supervisor, “Appears certain state departments are concerned with Flint's WQ (water quality). I will return the call..." A year later, Bush was suspended without pay for his role in the crisis. Flint city officials sent residents a letter informing them the water they were now using could cause an increased risk of cancer over time.

The state found that the level of disinfectants in the water exceeded the Safe Drinking Water Act’s threshold. A few days after this finding was made public, the water authority offered to reconnect Flint to Lake Huron’s water supply waiving the $4 million fee. However, Flint city officials declined the offer stating water fees could raise to more than $12 million each year. It is interesting to note that state government emails released by the liberal group, Progress Michigan, found that while state officials were telling Flint residents not to worry about drinking their tap water, these same officials had a cooler with purified water to avoid drinking Flint tap water while at work in Flint’s state office.

The questions about an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease continued. In a February 5, 2015 email to Howard Croft, then-director of Flint’s Department of Public Works, James Henry, a Genesee County environmental health supervisor wrote about the difficulties he had with gaining access to information about Flint’s water supply.

“The Genesee County Health Department has attempted to obtain specific information regarding the Flint water distribution system from your office since November 2014. Your office has not provided a return phone call or response to emails. A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was sent electronically and mailed to your office on January 27, 2015, in attempt to obtain information. The response from your office on February 4, 2015, did not include any information that was requested. I am still hopeful that we can work collaboratively to protect the health of the community and resolve any issues with the Flint water supply.”

In March 2015, MDEQ Communications Director, Brad Wurfel, stated in an email to Harvey Hollin, the governor’s director of urban initiatives, and MDEQ director (at the time) Dan Wyatt, 40 cases of Legionnaire’s disease were reported in Genesee County since April 2014. Wurfel goes on to say that that number is more than what had been reported in the previous five years combined. Similarly, Laurel Garrison of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on April 27, 2015, wrote in an email to Genesee County health officials, “We are very concerned about this Legionnaires’ disease outbreak. It’s very large, one of the largest we know of in the past decade, and community-wide, and in our opinion and experience it needs a comprehensive investigation.” These emails seemed to demonstrate that local, state, and federal government officials knew about the outbreak many months before the governor’s office officially announced the outbreak in January 2016.

The situation in Flint looked bleak and the troubles with the water supply, transparency, and disclosure did not end here. In part two of the case, you will learn more about lead contamination and governmental agency involvement in the crisis.