Today marks a decade since the water supply of Flint, Michigan, was temporarily switched to the Flint River, exposing residents to dangerous levels of lead and other chemicals. I am a lifelong resident of Flint, and my family’s roots can be traced back four generations. My teenage years were consumed by the reality of the Flint water crisis, which has all but vanished from public consciousness and stands no closer to being resolved, despite its brief stint at the center of national attention.
Our water crisis was the subject of many op-eds, national news stories and political debates, carried by people’s shock that something like this could happen in America. But what happened in Flint wasn’t some accident; it was the result of years of disenfranchisement by greedy, corrupt actors and state officials.
Since 2002, Flint has been under state receivership twice. These “emergencies” were caused by artificially engineered revenue deficits imposed by the state government on majority-Black cities. The legislation passed with the intention of fixing our revenue problems gave the state authority to override local decisions, modify or terminate contracts, and even dissolve local governments or school boards. With each “financial emergency,” emergency managers were tasked with balancing Flint’s budget and reducing costs. It was during the 2011 financial emergency when several emergency managers switched our water supply to the Flint River as an interim source, claiming it would save the city money. While residents were never told the exact dollar amount we were expected to save, it has been documented that emergency manager Ed Kurtz agreed to purchase “an excessive amount of water” from Karegnondi Water Authority, resulting in overspending by $1 million.
In these ten years, it seems like there is always something in motion, but almost nothing of substance has been accomplished.
On April 25, 2014, our city’s water source was switched from the Detroit water system to the Flint River, which we had stopped using 50 years ago, to build a new $285 million pipeline from Genesee County to Lake Huron. The emergency manager made this decision under the guise of fiscal responsibility. In reality, corporate entities got rich, including the companies that won the contracts for the pipeline, the bond holders who financed it and the surrounding suburbs, which got their pipeline subsidized by Flint and then blocked residents’ access to it. Due to the dissolution of local representative democracy, we could not stop this decision, which led to the poisoning of the water we drink and bathe in.
The media coverage we received resulted in a lot of pearl-clutching and “thoughts and prayers.” It culminated in an extremely disappointing public relations stunt where former President Barack Obama visited Flint in May 2016 and took a tiny sip of water, barely enough to wet his lips, to assure the country of its safety. To many onlookers, the sheer amount of attention Flint experienced made it seem as if the city received the investment and manpower it needed to fix the issue. This was not the case.
In the years since the water crisis began, Flint residents are still waiting for access to safe clean water. As of April 2024, not a penny of the underwhelming $656 million water settlement has been paid out to residents. There is no guaranteed health care for those impacted by the crisis. The law that resulted in this crisis is still in effect. The inadequate court-ordered lead service line replacement and yard restoration are incomplete. Water shutoffs have resumed. Lawsuits determining blame are still pending.
In these 10 years, it seems like there is always something in motion, but almost nothing of substance has been accomplished. Amid a continuous flurry of ineffective actions and endless musical chairs of officials and initiatives, there is also the concerted effort to dismiss and further disenfranchise the already disenfranchised.
Since 2014, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has made repeated assurances of our water’s safety while simultaneously minimizing damning evidence of misconduct collected by the Department of Health and Human Services. Despite these assurances, we’re still experiencing boil water notices and concerns about whether the water is safe to drink.
Individuals like Hernán Gómez, a physician at Hurley Medical Center and clinical associate professor at the University of Michigan, and Kim Dietrich, professor of epidemiology and environmental health at the University of Cincinnati, wielded their expertise to aid in the state’s efforts to subjugate and dismiss Flint residents. They argued semantics in a 2018 New York Times op-ed titled “The Children of Flint Were Not ‘Poisoned.’” They were given a platform to reassure the public that the children of Flint, who were harmed by the lead levels in the water, were fine. The deliberate manipulation of the public narrative has helped those culpable for the crisis escape accountability. And accountability is one of the main barriers to effective, expedient action in treating a wound that has not been allowed to heal.
Flint residents remain stripped of their ability to act autonomously. The state government maintains the emergency manager law that was pivotal in the water crisis. At any time, Michigan residents could again be unable to steward their water assets, leaving their communities at the mercy of faceless conglomerates. Though not all communities are equally vulnerable, it is usually majority-Black cities like Flint that end up being harmed.
Garbage floats in the Flint River, 2016. Credit: Sarah Rice / Getty Images
What’s been happening in Flint should serve as a warning to the rest of America. It represents rampant private sector commodification of public resources, with a total disregard for public wellbeing. Corporate interests have again and again infiltrated our democracy and rendered it nonfunctional. Considering that the Flint water crisis was set into motion with the theft of our autonomous function and democratic rights, it could happen anywhere. All it takes is the deliberate erosion of democracy, the stigmatization of a marginalized community and years of distortion and public relations running interference. In this country, we have a troubled history of taking accountability when dealing with national catastrophes, especially when they fade away from the public’s memory without any real progress having been made.
We have examples, however, of adequate action taken after a catastrophe. In 1999, when the residents of Libby, Montana, found themselves in a dangerous and precarious position when thousands were diagnosed with mesothelioma and asbestosis due to the area’s history with mining, they were immediately believed. In fact, the EPA declared a public health emergency in Libby for the first time in history and used it to provide federal single-payer health care for victims of asbestos-related diseases. The EPA then dedicated nearly 20 years to remediating the issue in Libby. If the residents of Flint were given the same trust and respect the residents of Libby received, the water crisis would be well on its way to being history — one that must not be repeated.
The public health crises around the country happen to real people, and their problems are often complex structural issues that resist dismantling. As a Flint resident, I want to remind everyone that our suffering is not a spectacle, and the feel-good stories you have been fed about the end of our water crisis are just distractions. Until we are given the power to shape our own future and the platform to tell our own stories, this crisis will never end. It is time America paid attention to what we have to say.
Read more about the demands accumulated by residents of the City of Flint through resident coalitions like the Flint Democracy Defense League.
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The Flint water crisis is not over, ten years later
A resident of Flint and member of Flint’s Democracy Defense League, Keishaun Wade is an alumnus of the last public high school in Flint, and a recipient of the Yale University Bassett Award for Community Engagement. He attends Cornell University, where he studies Urban and Regional Planning at with a concentration in Inequality and Urban Life as well as Real Estate, Housing, and Urban Economics.
More by Keishaun Wade
The Flint water crisis is not over, ten years later
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Today marks a decade since the water supply of Flint, Michigan, was temporarily switched to the Flint River, exposing residents to dangerous levels of lead and other chemicals. I am a lifelong resident of Flint, and my family’s roots can be traced back four generations. My teenage years were consumed by the reality of the Flint water crisis, which has all but vanished from public consciousness and stands no closer to being resolved, despite its brief stint at the center of national attention.
Our water crisis was the subject of many op-eds, national news stories and political debates, carried by people’s shock that something like this could happen in America. But what happened in Flint wasn’t some accident; it was the result of years of disenfranchisement by greedy, corrupt actors and state officials.
Since 2002, Flint has been under state receivership twice. These “emergencies” were caused by artificially engineered revenue deficits imposed by the state government on majority-Black cities. The legislation passed with the intention of fixing our revenue problems gave the state authority to override local decisions, modify or terminate contracts, and even dissolve local governments or school boards. With each “financial emergency,” emergency managers were tasked with balancing Flint’s budget and reducing costs. It was during the 2011 financial emergency when several emergency managers switched our water supply to the Flint River as an interim source, claiming it would save the city money. While residents were never told the exact dollar amount we were expected to save, it has been documented that emergency manager Ed Kurtz agreed to purchase “an excessive amount of water” from Karegnondi Water Authority, resulting in overspending by $1 million.
On April 25, 2014, our city’s water source was switched from the Detroit water system to the Flint River, which we had stopped using 50 years ago, to build a new $285 million pipeline from Genesee County to Lake Huron. The emergency manager made this decision under the guise of fiscal responsibility. In reality, corporate entities got rich, including the companies that won the contracts for the pipeline, the bond holders who financed it and the surrounding suburbs, which got their pipeline subsidized by Flint and then blocked residents’ access to it. Due to the dissolution of local representative democracy, we could not stop this decision, which led to the poisoning of the water we drink and bathe in.
The media coverage we received resulted in a lot of pearl-clutching and “thoughts and prayers.” It culminated in an extremely disappointing public relations stunt where former President Barack Obama visited Flint in May 2016 and took a tiny sip of water, barely enough to wet his lips, to assure the country of its safety. To many onlookers, the sheer amount of attention Flint experienced made it seem as if the city received the investment and manpower it needed to fix the issue. This was not the case.
In the years since the water crisis began, Flint residents are still waiting for access to safe clean water. As of April 2024, not a penny of the underwhelming $656 million water settlement has been paid out to residents. There is no guaranteed health care for those impacted by the crisis. The law that resulted in this crisis is still in effect. The inadequate court-ordered lead service line replacement and yard restoration are incomplete. Water shutoffs have resumed. Lawsuits determining blame are still pending.
In these 10 years, it seems like there is always something in motion, but almost nothing of substance has been accomplished. Amid a continuous flurry of ineffective actions and endless musical chairs of officials and initiatives, there is also the concerted effort to dismiss and further disenfranchise the already disenfranchised.
Since 2014, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has made repeated assurances of our water’s safety while simultaneously minimizing damning evidence of misconduct collected by the Department of Health and Human Services. Despite these assurances, we’re still experiencing boil water notices and concerns about whether the water is safe to drink.
Individuals like Hernán Gómez, a physician at Hurley Medical Center and clinical associate professor at the University of Michigan, and Kim Dietrich, professor of epidemiology and environmental health at the University of Cincinnati, wielded their expertise to aid in the state’s efforts to subjugate and dismiss Flint residents. They argued semantics in a 2018 New York Times op-ed titled “The Children of Flint Were Not ‘Poisoned.’” They were given a platform to reassure the public that the children of Flint, who were harmed by the lead levels in the water, were fine. The deliberate manipulation of the public narrative has helped those culpable for the crisis escape accountability. And accountability is one of the main barriers to effective, expedient action in treating a wound that has not been allowed to heal.
Flint residents remain stripped of their ability to act autonomously. The state government maintains the emergency manager law that was pivotal in the water crisis. At any time, Michigan residents could again be unable to steward their water assets, leaving their communities at the mercy of faceless conglomerates. Though not all communities are equally vulnerable, it is usually majority-Black cities like Flint that end up being harmed.
What’s been happening in Flint should serve as a warning to the rest of America. It represents rampant private sector commodification of public resources, with a total disregard for public wellbeing. Corporate interests have again and again infiltrated our democracy and rendered it nonfunctional. Considering that the Flint water crisis was set into motion with the theft of our autonomous function and democratic rights, it could happen anywhere. All it takes is the deliberate erosion of democracy, the stigmatization of a marginalized community and years of distortion and public relations running interference. In this country, we have a troubled history of taking accountability when dealing with national catastrophes, especially when they fade away from the public’s memory without any real progress having been made.
We have examples, however, of adequate action taken after a catastrophe. In 1999, when the residents of Libby, Montana, found themselves in a dangerous and precarious position when thousands were diagnosed with mesothelioma and asbestosis due to the area’s history with mining, they were immediately believed. In fact, the EPA declared a public health emergency in Libby for the first time in history and used it to provide federal single-payer health care for victims of asbestos-related diseases. The EPA then dedicated nearly 20 years to remediating the issue in Libby. If the residents of Flint were given the same trust and respect the residents of Libby received, the water crisis would be well on its way to being history — one that must not be repeated.
The public health crises around the country happen to real people, and their problems are often complex structural issues that resist dismantling. As a Flint resident, I want to remind everyone that our suffering is not a spectacle, and the feel-good stories you have been fed about the end of our water crisis are just distractions. Until we are given the power to shape our own future and the platform to tell our own stories, this crisis will never end. It is time America paid attention to what we have to say.
Read more about the demands accumulated by residents of the City of Flint through resident coalitions like the Flint Democracy Defense League.
Keishaun Wade
A resident of Flint and member of Flint’s Democracy Defense League, Keishaun Wade is an alumnus of the last public high school in Flint, and a recipient of the Yale University Bassett Award for Community Engagement. He attends Cornell University, where he studies Urban and Regional Planning at with a concentration in Inequality and Urban Life as well as Real Estate, Housing, and Urban Economics. More by Keishaun Wade